Offering 12 years of incisive writing about contentiously debated topics in modern poetry, these essays, interviews, and reflections focus on two central themes -- the changing nature of beauty in the lyric and the necessity of finding new ways to embody spirituality. Citing traditions such as language writing and Buddhist verse, this collection explores various approaches to writing about the spiritual experiences that have evolved in American poetry over the past 100 years, including perspectives from the jazz of Monk and Coltrane to the philosophies of Heidegger and Derrida. Accessible, engaging, and instructive, this book will challenge readers to examine both how they listen to the language of a poem and why they are listening in the first place.