**
Adam O. Davis is the author of
Index of Haunted Houses (Sarabande, 2020), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize. The recipient of the 2016 George Bogin Memorial Award from the Poetry Society of America, his work has recently appeared in
The Believer, The Cincinnati Review,
New Ohio Review, and
Poetry Review. He lives in San Diego, California, where he teaches at The Bishop’s School. More at www.adamodavis.com.
INTRODUCTION
The most important work any poet does is done on the page. Despite all claims otherwise, poets are mechanics, not magicians, and what makes us what we are is the tinkering, the testing, the troubleshooting. I love that work. Especially now, I take such comfort in the sanctity of the page. There I’m alone, adrift in possibility, nothing but an echo with ink, and there I must prove again and anew what I am and what I can do. A poet is not a poet without poems. The work is all and everything that matters.