O: Apostrophic Ghosts and the Disappearing Acts of Lyric Poetry

Considers how a series of poets reimagined the possibilities of "O" as a gesture of apostrophe and, even more so, of writing.

In poetry circles, "O" is commonly associated with apostrophe—a dramatized turn to call out to an absent friend or idea. This call, however, is made possible by a graphic sign it pretends not to acknowledge. O follows poets who were rethinking the apostrophic "O" alongside its symbolic, iconic, and material forms. Organized conceptually rather than chronologically, th...