Dillon, with the lyric I (the lyric eye), you're heading into some heady and post-experimental territory. I'm curious to see how you negotiate the authority.

The whole avant-garde poetic experience seems to have been predicated on getting away from the lyric I, which was good in that it broke new poetic ground. Along the way, though, eschewing the first person became a stone commandment (Thou shalt not write with the lyric I). And, to my mind, blindly following rules isn't particularly inventive or innovative.

So where does the hesitation to put the personal in the poetic come from? Because I have a lot of reluctance there, as well. If you (read: I) cannot claim that authorial authority inherent in the first-person voice, then by what right do you (I) write? And if I am (you are) unwilling to claim that mantle, what does that say about my (your) authority?

I don't know the answers, but I am trying to question my actions and assumptions around using the first person in my own work.