{"product_id":"taking-the-train-of-singularity-south-from-midtown","title":"Taking the Train of Singularity South from Midtown","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe general theme of this book, and a number of its individual poems, is that love and language create community. There is little self- reference and confession. Set in Gloucester, New York, or Paris, in Panama or Newtown, the poems come from a commitment to civic poetry, a poetry of social place and witness. Civic poetry is poems written for the public on community topics; poetry accessible to an attentive, general audience. And since it is often meant to be read in public, civic poetry relies on sound and familiar forms: rhyming tricks, assonance, consonance, regular rhythms, refrain and stanza, couplets, etc. And of course, civic poetry, like all poetry, is insightful, well-crafted and fresh, never talks down, and is never watered down.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBesides accessibility, sound, rhythm, and freshness, there is another necessary ingredient in civic poetry: hope. Not innocent or immature hope, nothing naive. It may be a battered hope, even diminished, but is not cowed or faint, remains brassy, unabashed. Civic poetry makes no apologies for believing in our stressed and distorted, but wonderful national experiment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"John J. Ronan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53615429976444,"sku":"9781935218425","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0251\/4980\/0541\/files\/9781935218425_2f6eba08-a434-4285-8c78-26dba5ec4c57.jpg?v=1726575767","url":"https:\/\/combined-academic.myshopify.com\/products\/taking-the-train-of-singularity-south-from-midtown","provider":"Combined Academic Publishers - Mare Nostrum Group","version":"1.0","type":"link"}