Stanley Plumbly is linked to Tess Gallagher by time period. Both wrote from 1970 to present day. This means that they were both post-modern poets, though neither fits neatly into this category. Both make use of open form and free verse, qualities of modernist and post-modern poetry. Plumbly makes use of unconventional metaphor and thoughts connected in some way, more so than in a stream of consciousness, both qualities of modernist poetry. Both Plumbly and Gallagher focus on nature more than urbanscapes (the latter being another quality of modernist poetry), reflecting each's rural upbringing.
The poetry of both may be considered post-modern in that it "embraces complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, and diversity.” They also fall into this category for their focus on loss and fragmentation, though they approach with melancholy more than the celebration that is expected of post-modern poets. Probably also a product of their upbringing is that both write poems that focus more on common folk and popular ideas as opposed to higher class ideals. More specifically, these poets may be classified as confessional, because of the deeply personal content of their verse. See http://acupofpoetry-carissa.weebly.com/ for more information.
The context under which both write is more broadly that of American history. The two saw Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, two Bushes and Obama into office at the time in which they wrote. There were scandals and debts; a rising governmental role in environmental, educational, and poverty initiatives; rising tensions with China and the USSR along with a shift toward international humanitarianism; and an economic recession. This was the time of the Arab Oil embargo, Row v. Wade, Microsoft, Elvis, Three Mile Island, the Space Race, Mt. St. Helen, and John Lennon, the Iran-Contra Affair, SNL, Vietnam, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror. For a crash course on US History, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history_(1970-1989). With the international and domestic tensions, it is clear why both poets focused on the wounds in their own personal lives.
The poetry of both may be considered post-modern in that it "embraces complexity, contradiction, ambiguity, and diversity.” They also fall into this category for their focus on loss and fragmentation, though they approach with melancholy more than the celebration that is expected of post-modern poets. Probably also a product of their upbringing is that both write poems that focus more on common folk and popular ideas as opposed to higher class ideals. More specifically, these poets may be classified as confessional, because of the deeply personal content of their verse. See http://acupofpoetry-carissa.weebly.com/ for more information.
The context under which both write is more broadly that of American history. The two saw Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, two Bushes and Obama into office at the time in which they wrote. There were scandals and debts; a rising governmental role in environmental, educational, and poverty initiatives; rising tensions with China and the USSR along with a shift toward international humanitarianism; and an economic recession. This was the time of the Arab Oil embargo, Row v. Wade, Microsoft, Elvis, Three Mile Island, the Space Race, Mt. St. Helen, and John Lennon, the Iran-Contra Affair, SNL, Vietnam, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror. For a crash course on US History, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_United_States_history_(1970-1989). With the international and domestic tensions, it is clear why both poets focused on the wounds in their own personal lives.
