Writing Contrapuntal Poems I

Shadows, Voices & Dissent

“Swan and Shadow.” Poetry Foundation.

Although the contrapuntal form feels daunting for many poets, increasingly, they experiment with the form. Jenny's Xie's collection, The Rupture Tense, adds to a growing collection of poems that makes use of at least two bodies of text to create complex works of art.

I began writing what I called column poems in early 2001. I’m not sure of the season– but I do know that by late in the year, I was confident enough in the form to write a three-column poem about the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. My daughter was off to kindergarten that year, and I’d bought a house on my own after a separation, then my divorce. I remember those lush weekday mornings after taking my daughter to the bus stop. If I wasn’t teaching college classes or grading papers, creating my column poems directly on my laptop and gazing out my sliding glass window felt like the height of luxury. I’d finally created A Room of One’s Own, and thus, on the page, I was doing the same.