Watershed

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In his first volume, Tyler Dillow adroitly gathers his sundry poems together as a Watershed. A watershed is a perfectly conceived title to illuminate this particular collection, but we might also note that it is a perfect analogy for the unity that underlies any poetry collection. A watershed, in its American usage, is all the land whose snow and rainfall drains into the same body of water, and it includes both the networks of surface streams and the groundwater and subterranean aquifers that feed those streams. It thus represents the organic unity of a place, as defined not by political boundaries and human concepts, but by its intrinsic being and source. To apply the metaphor to the realm of poetry books: On the surface, we may identify a variety of subjects, modes, and themes (wildly divergent cities, towns, and principalities), but if there is a distinctive artistic intelligence flowing through the work, it will all share that source and move as one body of water. -Sam TaylorWichita, KansasApril 17, 2022