POETRY IS THEFT

This article explores poetic practices of copying and recycling that follow a "cannibalistic" logic. Taking a cue from theories of literary relationality elaborated by Edward Said, Haroldo De Campos, Oswald De Andrade, Edouard Glissant, Jorge Luis Borges, and Marcus Boon, I examine innovations in the work of poets such as Monica de la Torre, Timothy Donnelly, Terrance Hayes, Mark McMorris, Haryette Mullen, M. NourbeSe Philip, and Wendy Walker. While it is unusual to read North American poetry in connection with postcolonial and Latin American literary theory, my article's method enacts the same kind of poetic circuit that I am interested in exploring. Seeking to build on recent comparative approaches to twentieth-century poetry I argue that tracing dialogues and conceptual affinities across linguistic and regional boundaries is crucial for understanding the development of experimental poetics in the American Hemisphere.