English @ SUNY Geneseo | Abby Barrett | Activity https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/members/aeb20/activity/ Activity feed for Abby Barrett. Thu, 27 Aug 2026 18:23:02 -0500 https://buddypress.org/?v= en-US 30 hourly 2 d9032f0e618045416a9054c4ddbcbf6c Abby Barrett edited the blog post First Song to Break My Heart in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/11159/ Fri, 16 Nov 2018 03:17:19 -0500 Ah, my friends…and I am back to writing about songs.

Aren’t songs the wellspring of poetry?

Or is poetry the origin of song?

In any case, the lyrical has always had the striking ability to create and […]

]]> 0 2234e0aa3f7e9d6d67014588ed83e109 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Reading through Claudia Rankine's "Citizen", on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/11156/ Fri, 16 Nov 2018 03:03:24 -0500 Dear Connor,

Citizen is a book that keeps coming up and that I keep wanting to read, so I’m glad that you brought it up. I agree that the second person can be a helpful way to deflect what the speaker, or […]

]]> 0 815af271c0ba706261b26bd3b542ba5b Abby Barrett commented on the post, Reflection on the Kindergarten Teacher and Why Poets Write, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10965/ Mon, 29 Oct 2018 16:08:39 -0500 Dear Danielle,

I’ve experienced both sides of the coin in the past. In high school, I think I tried to be reckless because I thought that it would give me more interesting experiences (and implicitly, that I […]

]]> 0 663920018728a0b593bcf67441c90190 Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post a silly story about my boyfriend, and a Robert Hass pome in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10960/ Sat, 27 Oct 2018 23:06:48 -0500 My partner Noah is both a lover of as well as constructive critic of my work, and for this I appreciate him a lot. He’s not afraid to say this is really good and I don’t understand this in the same breath, and […]

]]> 0 e9b44a112f518241d732fc03f9ca8c92 Abby Barrett commented on the post, What we have the right to (ekphrasis, epigraphs, artistic responsibility...), on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10939/ Tue, 23 Oct 2018 13:55:32 -0500 Olivia,

I think it’s useful how you distinguish between a ‘right’ and a ‘responsibility.’ I also felt, after hearing from David Herd, that I wanted to invite a shift in my writing, towards directly and […]

]]> 0 81f142c77d2bc981960c5a172be5abc2 Abby Barrett commented on the post, "Ramona" by Guster: a desire for intimacy, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10938/ Tue, 23 Oct 2018 13:45:35 -0500 Olivia,

I’m so glad that you were able to read through this and connect with the song! I’ve thought about this song for years now, and to be able to connect with someone over it is super exciting. I agree that […]

]]> 0 0d4a15bc3dd142bd7acf75bcc8d78e65 Abby Barrett edited the blog post "Ramona" by Guster: a desire for intimacy in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10935/ Tue, 23 Oct 2018 04:26:55 -0500 In middle school and high school, my two self-proclaimed favorite bands were Guster and CAKE. I didn’t know why I appreciated these bands, exactly, but along with the “alternative” likes of Coldplay, Death Cab for […]

]]> 0 164059a3e55879b20a46d0a743bd3966 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Heavenly Bodies, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10874/ Sun, 14 Oct 2018 21:16:49 -0500 Hey, Sarah!
I am also very interested in fashion. I love how it gives a way for each person, whether rich or poor, to express themselves (though of course, a low-income person has very few options compared to a […]

]]> 0 e1fa39d420d45f5e5fc10a18f6ef6170 Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post A note on "Law" in Through in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10873/ Sun, 14 Oct 2018 21:09:29 -0500 David Herd’s Through is not only a well-written, cohesive collection of poems; it’s a story about how syntax, about “who leaves the language” (11), about appellants who are “rarely white” (12), who are “spirited […]

]]> 0 6990c779d7516ecbf139aa9695f465bc Abby Barrett edited the blog post Metaphysics in Kai Carlson-Wee's "Steampipe" in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10819/ Wed, 03 Oct 2018 02:32:08 -0500 Carlson-Wee places the poem “Steampipe” within section II (of V) of his collection RAIL. In reading RAIL, I immediately identified section II as a bounded network of poems connected deeply by violence. In “S […]

]]> 0 710c8882dc37578e7661dd21591f2f59 Abby Barrett commented on the post, So you want me to write a Villanelle: Sylvia Plath’s “Mad Girl’s Love Song” and other obsessive verses, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10816/ Wed, 03 Oct 2018 01:09:45 -0500 Olivia,
I enjoy the way you eloquently flirt with the villanelle in this post. Three mentions of the form certainly is a challenge, and I look forward to seeing you take the challenge. (This is a fourth […]

]]> 0 8c89d6c1f23bbaffd526d43104c3459d Abby Barrett commented on the post, Poetry, community, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10776/ Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:12:17 -0500 Olivia,
I can offer no solutions to your questions about community. As a senior this year, I too will not be in workshops at Geneseo much longer. I know that it is something I will deeply miss. It’s not just the […]

]]> 0 380073f1fef5d81d0d3ae69054c26bb8 Abby Barrett commented on the post, eeeeeeeek. talking abt rupi kaur (again), on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10775/ Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:04:57 -0500 Natalie,
Thank you for addressing this. I have mixed feelings about Rupi Kaur. Like you, in some ways I’m glad she’s come to the public scene as a woman of color who discusses intimate topics, especially sex and […]

]]> 0 e0da0949ff953c03d5343cdca58c52e9 Abby Barrett commented on the post, The naive poet and erotic poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10774/ Tue, 25 Sep 2018 23:01:32 -0500 Daniel,

I think I have a similar experience in that explicit eroticism feels forced or contrived and that metaphors just don’t do it for me. I’ve had a difficult time writing about eroticism because in our […]

]]> 0 44787d2871575964ecc204df33bd2fef Abby Barrett edited the blog post Brevity, pt. II in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10773/ Tue, 25 Sep 2018 22:39:56 -0500 Last week in my blog post, I made a statement that I feel I should clarify rather than leaving it decontextualized on the page:

“There is nothing stopping every single poet in the world from simultaneously […]

]]> 0 854c2e6e9c1c1209ded879993b47a760 Abby Barrett edited the blog post On Brevity in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10741/ Fri, 21 Sep 2018 16:28:48 -0500 There is nothing stopping every single poet in the world from simultaneously summarizing their future work into much smaller segments, except perhaps for the fact that detail is required in most cases to make the […]

]]> 0 5cb9ef115b44174c3a8af0a05e255951 Abby Barrett edited the blog post Jennifer Givhan's "I am dark, I am forest" in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10624/ Wed, 12 Sep 2018 15:11:43 -0500 This summer I purchased and read the poetry collection Girl with Death Mask by author Jennifer Givhan. Givhan is a talented Mexican-American poet who often writes from her raw experiences about culture, i […]

]]> 0 e7f8cec3a89588652c1aa19cddaf5ce5 Abby Barrett commented on the post, To new beginnings, on the site The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10565/ Sat, 08 Sep 2018 17:53:18 -0500 Daniel,
How interesting that you wrote this a day before the workshop where we all personally riffed in our journals about how we conceive of form (9/5).
It’s interesting that you conceive of form as a blob, […]

]]> 0 522b969d14e165c561b10d519bba9507 Abby Barrett changed their profile picture https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10534/ Wed, 05 Sep 2018 05:10:26 -0500 0 08ad02cb66bb72460070c385e7b83cd1 Abby Barrett edited the blog post A Review of Brian Teare's Companion Grasses; In particular, "This book can't be sung" in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10528/ Wed, 05 Sep 2018 03:31:24 -0500 Reading through Brian Teare’s Companion Grasses reminds me of the fond times I’ve spent at art museums with my boyfriend. This fondness has a hard edge, however, because this activity always feels to me like it w […]

]]> 0 3d29efb9478dae45bb0845519ae6b0c3 Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post Epilogue: Personal Notes to My Fellow Poets in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/10236/ Mon, 07 May 2018 01:52:45 -0500 Of course I am aware that this blog is on a public domain, but more importantly, I know that the members of Lytton’s Spring 2018 poetry class read it. And I wanted to recognize the incredible work we all have done […]

]]> 0 c088d0d2112a21afe77284cbdf7bc4f1 Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post Recurrent Theme: "Body" in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9989/ Fri, 13 Apr 2018 13:08:52 -0500 I never thought of my poems as having “recurrent themes” because they seemed to go in all sorts of directions. But one day recently I was looking at different literary journals and I found one called Love Me, Love […]

]]> 0 c102b7325897e79b7a6d7824c0bd64d1 Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post Poetic Humor in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9893/ Fri, 30 Mar 2018 17:53:57 -0500 One significant feature of poetry (and prose) readings that I’ve noticed is that readers can often get the audience to laugh. This is achieved by the use of subtle irony, by a cleverly placed joke, or by railing o […]

]]> 0 058debf496a2f4bdec5786d0846efd45 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Happy poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/03/23/happy-poetry/#comment-11616 Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:54:04 -0500 Hey Henry,
I’ve thought about this a lot! I was a little bit depressed in high school (though never clinically diagnosed, though I did go to therapy) and I wrote a lot of poetry then. I’m a lot happier, content, […]

]]> d22e45c0b48e571dfdd61628ab3780c9 Abby Barrett commented on the post, The 11 Things That Occur When You Fall In Love With A Poet, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/03/23/the-11-things-that-occur-when-you-fall-in-love-with-a-poet/#comment-11615 Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:45:11 -0500 Small comment, but I love the idea of a loved one’s face being a poem in and of itself!

]]> 324ab9dc9f8ffb4a02f7a8b0816e9ae7 Abby Barrett commented on the post, On the fear of being obscure, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/03/21/on-the-fear-of-being-obscure/#comment-11614 Sun, 25 Mar 2018 16:38:27 -0500 Hey Megan! Thank you for your encouragement. It’s difficult for me to be vulnerable and so I was really scared after I published this onto the blog. I appreciate you reading and commenting.

It really is […]

]]> cdc5efb2b55cb86805417a0a714c365e Abby Barrett edited the blog post On the fear of being obscure in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9833/ Wed, 21 Mar 2018 21:09:11 -0500 I am a man with a heart that offends
With its lonely and greedy demands
There’s only a shadow of me, in a manner of speaking I’m dead
[…]
Jesus I need you, be near me, come shield me
From fossils that fall on my head
There’s only a shadow of me, in a matter of speaking I’m dead
–Sufjan Stevens, “John My Beloved”

It’s honesty time,…[Read more]

]]> 0 ddb5084e0dd358e8cd7d54b4c85e3001 Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post Emotional Frustration in Poetry in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9775/ Wed, 07 Mar 2018 02:48:58 -0500 Sometimes, writing poetry frustrates me. I’ve mentioned (and probably made it clear in workshop at this point) that sound is oftentimes more important to me than actual content. I’ve always found that music […]

]]> 0 d3ec262c3bb617778e3312187facc735 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Fiction and Poetry, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/18/fiction-and-poetry/#comment-11401 Fri, 23 Feb 2018 00:46:41 -0500 Hey Danielle! This is really interesting to read as I have also written fictional poetry and been asked about its reflection of reality in my life. I’ve been left with the same sort of uncomfortable, “Can poetry […]

]]> d1c3367beb75d428c8bc394dbe8e4bc7 Abby Barrett edited the blog post Limits in poetry in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9726/ Thu, 22 Feb 2018 21:55:32 -0500 I think that every poet has limits–what they come to understand they will and won’t do in their poems. They may be based on structure, content, form, et. al., but I am willing to bet nearly every poet has them.

For example: Sound poetry. I am fascinated by sound poetry and would see myself moving in that direction in the future as I continue…[Read more]

]]> 0 2edf5d9712ae5cc29859038260adfbd9 Abby Barrett edited the blog post Sorrow, a present moment in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9676/ Fri, 16 Feb 2018 16:05:26 -0500 Sorrow is not generally a publicly appropriate emotion. Unless there has been a tragedy, most people (and especially women) are expected to be emotionally neutral or even positive all the time. This can be a dangerous expectation. For example, I have a period app, and if I ever log that I’m feeling “stressed,” “sad,” or “emotional,” it tells me…[Read more]

]]> 0 071a8754f1b406c0b4a7681111b0c22c Abby Barrett commented on the post, The Subpar Sublime, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/15/the-subpar-sublime/#comment-11347 Fri, 16 Feb 2018 15:29:36 -0500 The idea of the sublime is fascinating, to me at least, because it seems on the surface inherently paradoxical–how can the most beautiful also be the most terrifying? But it’s precisely these coexisting qualities […]

]]> d3521750ca8a294f016cce4b00c30848 Abby Barrett commented on the post, What's my business, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/08/whats-my-business/#comment-11292 Sat, 10 Feb 2018 20:06:04 -0500 It may not seem like it, but I would think you do have a business in sharing, even if you’re not sure exactly what to share, what you believe or where your loyalties lie. You could share about your lack of […]

]]> 58bb22e32bcfb1751f1aad7372310e00 Abby Barrett commented on the post, "Horses to be Broken", on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/08/horses-to-be-broken/#comment-11291 Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:53:54 -0500 I think the differentiation in word choice is really important, like you said. I agree with you. These darker words lead us to understand that Death is not just paying a mid-life visit; she is coming at an […]

]]> 4872576832191e2d742791321d506812 Abby Barrett commented on the post, As Long As You Got Something Out Of It..., on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/09/as-long-as-you-got-something-out-of-it/#comment-11290 Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:49:56 -0500 I get you here. I think it’s difficult because I want the reader to understand where I’m coming from, but I also think there’s an attractiveness to being open to interpretation and people being able to put […]

]]> 0bd41c40843bd29f07a13d4f2d42c23c Abby Barrett commented on the post, A reminder, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/01/a-reminder/#comment-11289 Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:43:25 -0500 Thank you for those insights, Jasmine! I especially like to consider how we do think in terms of an industrial, capitalist mindset and how we view things in a linear way rather than in a human way. I am a person, […]

]]> f327080c1ac3feaa2d79ab7f451983d4 Abby Barrett commented on the post, A reminder, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/01/a-reminder/#comment-11288 Sat, 10 Feb 2018 19:40:27 -0500 Of course! Remember to just be gentle and easy on yourself, and don’t beat yourself up. I’ve done that, and it only seems to make things worse for my motivation rather than better. Seeking inspiration from other […]

]]> 1924c3935c1d7fe156c5d62fb7df9b20 Abby Barrett commented on the post, memory©, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/02/07/memory/#comment-11279 Thu, 08 Feb 2018 20:35:55 -0500 Natalie,
I feel this concern too. In addition to poetry, I enjoy writing CNF (I feel like the line between these is sometimes blurred as it is). A friend suggested that I send for publication a final portfolio […]

]]> eee3ea768d465b9281b9f87c614e93df Abby Barrett edited the blog post Writing Towards a Culture of Caring in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9615/ Wed, 07 Feb 2018 12:35:19 -0500 I was in the shower so I could not tell my nose was bleeding
Dripped down my body to the floor right below my feet and
I looked in the mirror at my face, I thought I had a disease
-Jack White, “Missing Pieces”

There are some who frame sleeplessness as edgy or desirable, and this is a temptation that occurs only until one is actually staring…[Read more]

]]> 0 f39679544a554add7c2625509c688648 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Return to Rhyme, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/01/25/return-to-rhyme/#comment-11238 Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:46:25 -0500 Agreed, Gabi! I think that rhyme, along with meter, is still an important tool. Sometimes it may seem difficult to use it without making it sound “corny” (I struggle with this all the time) but I suppose that the […]

]]> 99c7e1aa44889b95019d831bd1aa7822 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Enter the Epigraph, on the site The Contemporary Poem http://cpoem.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2018/01/31/enter-the-epigraph/#comment-11237 Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:38:05 -0500 Rachel, I like this thought experiment! I have also been nervous to use epigraphs in the past because they seem to detract from what the author is saying. But I’ve also found that they can lend an even deeper […]

]]> b7317dd474db36db3a1ffcdeef5e4edc Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post A reminder in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9569/ Fri, 02 Feb 2018 00:30:37 -0500 I have no idea what I’m doing.

I don’t. Really. I thought there might be a point where I’d have a breakthrough and be able to cut through the noise that surrounds my days, but I can’t. I thought that one day I […]

]]> 0 9a1c74fe39740d5c11f0f0681d128e2c Abby Barrett wrote a new blog post down to the pitch, the word, the letter in the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9506/ Fri, 26 Jan 2018 03:27:25 -0500 In the past few years, I’ve become more interested in food and tea, and I’ve tried my hand at more complex cooking and brewing. When I was a kid, for example, my version of “making tea” was pouring whistling water […]

]]> 0 5f94ee040c2ee650f586414a6d204963 Abby Barrett joined the group The Contemporary Poem https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/9495/ Thu, 25 Jan 2018 22:13:46 -0500 0 9aae38a230d1f2ea38ca3b5b8693de10 Abby Barrett commented on the post, Living the Interdisciplinarity Life, on the site Reader and Text http://readerandtext.sunygeneseoenglish.org/2016/09/02/living-the-interdisciplinarity-life/#comment-59 Fri, 02 Sep 2016 13:20:19 -0500 I noticed this post as being in conversation with Arisa’s concerning what seems to be a growing worldwide ideal of “devoting enough time to being perfect,” as you describe it. Diversity is important not only […]

]]> 333f18e5a3dc08ab59f76cb6649ff8d8 Abby Barrett joined the group Reader and Text https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/6873/ Tue, 30 Aug 2016 19:53:34 -0500 0 15d6bc0c1c1a4baa4bea0171eb74331c Abby Barrett changed their profile picture https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/6276/ Wed, 06 Apr 2016 18:36:20 -0500 0 6d34befe5fcd18a074875c93ab7adf6d Abby Barrett became a registered member https://sunygeneseoenglish.org/activity/p/6274/ Wed, 06 Apr 2016 18:33:41 -0500 0