also what it means to be alive during the Anthropocene?to be on this planet?during this extraordinary time. By comparing the writing of a poem with his own tangled evolution as a son, husband, and father, Zapruder unfolds moments of his own life in the reflection of an increasingly uncanny world. With a wide range of reference points?from Celan, Li Bai, and Frank O'Hara to Whitman, Merwin, and Rupi Kaur?we join Zapruder on a poet's journey that, in some alchemy of literature, becomes a journey of our own. Ultimately, the poet asks us to join with him in the search for a crucial answer. In his words: ?What world can we imagine, and then make, where we all can live?? With Story of a Poem celebrated poet Matthew Zapruder offers a personal, deeply unguarded examination of a poet's eternal struggle to transform a moment of feeling into verse, as well as a subtle and enthralling roadmap to the practice of poetry and finding its threads in everyday life.