Anthony Sobin and "The Dream of the Moth"

One poet I’m especially fond of is Anthony Sobin, sometimes known as A.G. Sobin or Anthony G. Sobin. His only collection The Sunday Naturalist appeared in 1982. Fortunately, the Beloit Poetry Journal has digitized its archives, making some of Sobin’s poems available to those unfamiliar with his full-length collection. The Dream of the Moth, for example, reveals playful use of metaphor and vivid imagery. My reluctance to accept his criticism prevented us from working well together when I was a student of his around the same time that his book came out. That division kept me from applying to the MFA program at Wichita State where I would have created a book under his tutelage. I had a weird conception of my own poems, thinking that they should emphasize sound over sense. Nonetheless, in hindsight, I was lucky to make his acquaintance and could have learned more if I had been less arrogant and less stubborn.