Abstract

I came back to poetry through my academic work, and I came to the academy with my artistry. There is a tension between the two identities of artist and academic. I live and work in that tension. In this paper, I draw on my doctoral dissertation, where I wrote a book of poetry in two sections as the data for my research; I pay particular attention to the struggle I experienced in the conversation about whether or not to follow the book of poetry with an exegesis, the second part of my dissertation. I open here with two poems from my dissertation, one from each section of the book of poetry.