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Significant Publications

HomeSignificant Publications
  • Blue Woman: Poems of Philadelphia book cover

    Published: February 2025

    Blue Woman

    Poetry
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  • Sing What: Poems of Philadelphia book cover

    Published: March 2024

    Sing What

    Poetry
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  • Published: February 2023

    Lovers

    Poetry
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  • Published: February 2022

    Wicked World

    Poetry
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  • Sometime a Fine Morning

    Published: April 2021

    Sometime a Fine Morning

    Poetry
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  • Errata 2020

    Published: March 2020

    Errata 2020

    Poetry
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  • Published: January 2019

    Pub Crawl

    Poetry
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  • Evening Mist

    Published: June 2017

    Evening Mist

    Poetry
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  • BillboardEmpire

    Published: January 2017

    Billboard Empire

    Poetry
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  • Turnings

    Published: May 2016

    Turnings

    Poetry
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  • Relatively 4th Street

    Published: January 2016

    Relatively 4th Street

    Poetry
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  • Ragged Footsteps, Brushed Drums

    Published: June 2015

    Ragged Footsteps, Brushed Drums

    Poetry
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  • En route from the Capital

    Published: January 2015

    En route from the Capital

    Poetry
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  • Published: March 2014

    Evening of the First Day

    Poetry
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  • Published: September 2013

    Geography Lesson

    Poetry
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early works

Between 2004 and 2009 Yates published three chapbooks with small independent presses. The chapbooks were published in signed limited editions of 30 copies, and are now unavailable. These chapbooks are:

  • Billboards, Gargoyles, Fairfield Limited, 2004
  • The Master of Revels, Radical Ax Press, 2005
  • Ah, Philadelphia, Skyline Press, 2009

coming soon

Turnstile: scheduled for publication in Spring 2024

Aesthetic Statement
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Since college I have been acquainted with Western skeptical philosophy - from the Classical Greeks, through Montaigne, Descartes, Hume, Kant, William James, and modern phenomenologists. Early on i became convinced that European models of a viable polity are inadequate to American circumstances, so that i turned first to Japanese poets, and later to their Chinese predecessors, as aesthetic models...
aest2

Since college i have been acquainted with Western skeptical philosophy―from the Classical Greeks, through Montaigne, Descartes, Hume, Kant, William James, and modern phenomenologists. Early on i became convinced that European models of a viable polity are inadequate to American circumstances, so that i turned first to Japanese poets, and later to their Chinese predecessors, as aesthetic models.

Chinese poets of the T’ang and pre-T’ang dynasties―including especially T’ao Ch’ien, Wang Wei, Tu Fu, and Po Chü-i―were especially important to my formative years. Many of these poets were itinerant―sometimes forced to wander because of political upheaval or exile―and their poems reflect the landscapes of China, its rivers and mountains. These poems were imbued with the meditative stance of Ch’an Buddhism, in which the individual’s experience of the external world prompts the poet to contemplate the universality of all experience.

This tradition of Chinese poetry dovetailed with my conviction that a good poem should have social relevance, that it was unnecessarily limited if it concerned only the poet’s attitude or state of mind, or aspired only to the condition of music. In the American context, poets like Adrienne Rich have been the most prominent advocates of poetry as social commentary. Without espousing Rich’s (or anyone else’s) social program, my poems direct a constant critical eye on our urban world and its context―the polity that resulted in that world.

Philadelphia – this great city – has been the primary theater of my experience, my here and now. Though i have lived abroad and traveled frequently throughout the U.S. and to five continents, my poetry focuses almost exclusively on my Philadelphia surroundings. “This city notorious/for liberty and its coarse edges” has been a source of constant surprise, delight, and chagrin, and has provided images and experiences sufficient for a lifetime’s worth of meditation. Beginning in 1995 my frequent walks through city streets―with camera in one hand and audio recorder in the other―have been the source of my poetic meditations.

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