PhD Candidate Jay Ritchie on his latest book "Listening in Many Publics"

"One of the questions poetry is often confronted with is this question of use value—what is it for? This is a political question, less about poetry than about how life is organized. When we devalue so-called “non-useful” or “unproductive” things—socializing, wandering, reading poetry, noodling on a guitar—we devalue a precious part of our humanity. Life is wonderous and strange, and poetry allows me to connect with this understanding of life, allows me to see it and hear it and experience it."