Poetry is my exercise, by Anne M. Greenhalgh

Poetry, chapbook, 20 pages, from Bottlecap Features. Daniel Hoffman once said “There are two kinds of poets – hard boiled and soft boiled, those who write free verse and those who write formal poems.” Anne M. Greenhalgh is a hard-boiled poet who tests the creativity made possible within the limitation of form. Within this volume, Poetry is my exercise, Greenhalgh explores the possibilities within the constraints of the villanelle’s form. This sequence of eleven villanelles opens with the shaping forces of domestic life, transitions from family to friendship, pivots from the personal to the philosophical and the psychological, and closes with a meta-poetic ars poetica. Anne M. Greenhalgh earned her doctorate in English Literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied with Daniel Hoffman and wrote her dissertation on the “primary vocabulary” of Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry. She is a long-time member of the faculty and staff at The Wharton School, where she serves as Adjunct Professor of Management and Senior Director in the McNulty Leadership Program. Her debut chapbook, Now that mother is dead, All quilts unravel in the end, published by Moonstone Press, features a double crown of sonnets that explore themes of time, memory, and loss. Her work and writing reflect a lifelong commitment to language, learning, and the uplifting of others.