Self-Portrait / Sixteen Sevenlings

Poetry. The impetus for SELF-PORTRAIT / SIXTEEN SEVENLINGS began by accident. Rodger Moody stumbled across an account of the sevenling as a poetic form while online looking for something else. He thought he could use the playfulness inherent in the form to further explore particular subjects—the Midwest, the military, or work—that had become, after years of practice, subjects he was continually drawn to. He composed the individual sections in a hurry using simple language with the hope the results would make sense. He tried to introduce the unexpected through a leap in logic whenever possible. But more than anything else, he wanted to have fun.

"These 'SEVENLINGS' are for those who have drifted off at work only to be yanked back to a seemingly causeless reality (He remembers the job wasn't to last...), and for those who keep a copy of Yannis Ritsos's Selected Poems in the glovebox for their fifteen-minute break, and for those who find meaning and redemption in an art that's not afraid to place its bets on ardor and the deceptively plainspoken."—Michael McGriff.

"I admire these formal but playful seven-line gems and the way they leap into their final fullness. Rodger Moody's SELF-PORTRAIT is a revelation, line after line."—Dorianne Laux