Arguing With the Troubadour: Poems

by Kris T. Kahn

arguing with the troubadour , kris t kahn's first full-length poetry collection, is absolutely vital to contemporary American poetry. Its scope is focused and defined, encompassing the individual as well as the universal. arguing with the troubadour exhibits mastery over craft, paying homage to literary predecessors while insisting on a new mode of poetics that more fully depicts the travails of modernity and the need for a new postmodern gay poetics. As its title suggests, arguing with the troubadour is both a lyrical journey and an anti-lyrical journey, seamlessly fusing and confusing elements of the classical and the hypermodern. In gorgeous and haunting verse—hallmarks of kahn's work—this collection vacillates between the ordinary and the mythic as the poet tries on and tosses aside myriad guises in his search for an unfettered identity, one centered around desire, the body, and the subversion of language and conventional truth.

82 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2003

Reviews

[Lizanna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely not impressed here. Such an over-reliance on heavily weighted words and images, and a really weird obsession with the human body in extremis. Nothing terribly new or surprising or interesting to be found. I encourage Kristina to take a workshop class or two, and then try again.