George Chadderdon's Collected Poetry (Abridged)

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Commentary (updated February 17, 2005)

For returning friends and acquaintenances of this site... You might notice a few improvements. I've entered most of the poems I said I would withhold until revision into the site. (A few are still on the way.) A number of them probably aren't in their final forms, but I figure it's better to get them up now in case I never return to them. (For some, it would have been a true pity to have left them unrecorded, despite whatever flaws they might have yet.) I will feel free to revise these as time and inspiration allow, though with Ph.D. research going on, it's a lesser priority.

Navigation to the poems should be improved much since the navigation hyper-links are at the top, and—most importantly!—I've added a section of links to the works I regard as my best. (My best may not be your (choice of) best, but hopefully there's a high correlation.) I haven't been updating the Poetry Gallery part of the site and many of my best poems are therefore not in the gallery. It recently dawned on me that I've got a lot of stuff here, and, as I've long realized, not all of it is worth wading through to get to the good stuff. Hence, a self-proclaimed best list.

What follows is an anthology of the vast majority of my poems written over many years. It is a mirror of the entire collection in my Poetry Gallery site, but here it is organized in such a way to allow quick navigation of the text. Absent is the spawning of new browser windows which often annoys Web-surfers, but absent also are any of the pictures I included with some of the poems in the Poetry Gallery site. Nevertheless, if the poems are in a "room" in the gallery, I mention which.

Note that when I say the collection is abridged, I mean slightly. Some poems of a more personal nature or those that I think might offend too many people I decline to include. That still leaves most of my verse, however, and I'm sure there's enough that remains to make some people turn a different shade.

Many not-so-charitable people might say the collection I have here is far too inclusive, and may complain that there are a number of very bad poems within: bad both from a technical and from a psychological perspective. Well met, critic! There are indeed, I will cheerfully admit. Perhaps you will be more forgiving and patient, however, if you think of it as a kind of chronicle in my development: both as a poet and as a person. The years between high school and now have been marked by many improvements both in my poetic craft and in my own personal psychology. Knowing what's worth saying and how to say it are things that require much experimentation, life-experience, and exposure to the works of others. The tone and mood of my works is, in the earliest stages despairing, cynical, bitter, and angry, on the whole. The years have done much for my spirit, though the thread of melancholy that yet runs through much of my work suggests that there remains much that is unresolved. Who can say what my perspective will be in years hence?

Best Contents by Chronology

Undergraduate (UIUC) Years (1989-1993)

Graduate (UCSD) Years (1993-1995)

ORINCON Years (1995-1999)

Sony and Magic Lantern Years (1999-2001)

IU Bloomington Years (2002-2008)

Ph.D. Adrift Years (2009-recent)

Complete Contents by Chronology

High School (1985-1989)

Undergraduate (UIUC) Years (1989-1993)

Graduate (UCSD) Years (1993-1995)

ORINCON Years (1995-1999)

Sony and Magic Lantern Years (1999-2001)

IU Bloomington Years (2002-2008)

Ph.D. Adrift Years (2009-recent)

Complete Contents by Alphabetical Order