But who has the will to concern himself with such dangerous maybes? For that, one really has to to wait for the advent of a new species of philosophers, such as somehow another and converse taste and propensity from those we have known so far--philosophers of the dangerous "maybe" in every sense.

(Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil, sec 2.)

This will not be one more lament for the sad state of contemporary American poetry. Yet to define some of the basic strengths of new work I have to begin with what seems like a lament. For perhaps the most important invigorating element for contemporaries is a widespread dissatisfaction with what is called romantic lyricism, poetry based on the dramatization of intense subjective states leading to moments of resonant insight or contemplative peace. By now everyone knows the critique of this style posed by Language Writing or radical poetics...