Scaffolding: Poems

Scaffolding is a sequence of eighty-two sonnets written over the course of a year, dated and arranged in roughly chronological order, and vividly reflecting life in New York City. In this, her third book of poetry, El na Rivera uses the English sonnet as a scaffold to explore daily events, observations, conversations, thoughts, words, and memories--and to reflect on the work of earlier poets and the relationship between life and literature.

Guided by formal and syllabic constraints, the poems become in part an exploration of how form affects content and how other poets have approached the sonnet. The poems, which are very attentive to rhythm and sound, are often in conversation with historical, philosophical, artistic, and literary sources. But at the same time they engage directly with the present moment. Like the construction scaffolding that year after year goes up around buildings all over New York, these poems build on one another and change the way we see what was there before.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 11/08/2016
ISBN: 9780691172262
Pages: 104
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 0.30d

Review Citations: Booklist 10/01/2016 pg. 11
Publishers Weekly 10/17/2016