Grace-Notes: the Poetry of Andrew Waterman

The essay offers an overview of the poetry of Andrew Waterman. In particular, it focuses on the poet’s conception of the “grace-note” – a term that recurs in his poetry, usually referring to moments in which life, even if not divinely wrought and purposed, offers at least the compensation of purely intrinsic beauty. Poetry can serve both to preserve the experience of grace-notes and to confer some kind of order, however provisional, amidst chaos. This helps to explain the poet’s predilection for elaborate forms of poetry.