The Diary - July 25
The Diary
July 25, 2026
“Poetry leaves something up in the air. To have an impact, it needs to leave something unresolved—it must have ascendancy.” That’s how Kinga responded to my question of why a poem someone had just read, which sounded like an essay to me, was really a poem. I was attempting to define poetry by its structure and form. This was a new way of looking at the art form—one that focused on what it does as opposed to what it is.
This insight came during River City Reading Room’s first Poetry Circle. Nine of us had gathered around the rectangular table in the Gallery to read and discuss some of our favorite poems. In addition to this new definition of poetry, the Circle introduced me to poets I had never read like Assotto Saint, Craig Arnold, Larry Levis, and Richard Siken. I was struck by the diversity of the poems and the emotion and empathy with which those gathered read them. After reading Assotto Saint’s “Evidence”, a poem that chronicles the devastation of the AIDS epidemic on friends and lovers, Charles marveled both at “how much you have to love someone to watch them die” and how amazing it is to “put that kind of love into poetry.”
The week was full of insights. On Saturday, Peorian Jared Bartman discussed his work as a book cover designer. He got his start by reaching out to an art director at a publishing house who took the time to speak with him and eventually became his mentor. He highlighted the differences between working for large houses and small independent publishers—the latter offer more design latitude and have far fewer folks involved in the design process. He also explained how he goes about completing an assignment. When designing a cover for a work of literary fiction, he reads the book and takes fulsome notes. He repeatedly refers to the notes to generate the ideas that end up as his proposed covers. He cited Peter Mendelsund’s cover of Kafka’s “The Trial” as outstanding. The two rows of eleven eyes drawn in a mid-century-style not only call to mind overbearing bureaucracy, a see-all state, and the craziness that we now call “Kafkaesque”, but the color contrasts and composition make it a work of art. A good book cover makes you pick up the book and reveals some but not all the content.
This past week was a continuing revelation that there are worlds within worlds in this field of bookselling. I look forward to more exploration.