Reading Group Guide for Rules of Hunger ~poems~

1) In what ways do the poems in this book suggest a "journey"?

2) Explore how specific poems in Rules of Hunger deal with issues related to gender, ethnicity, class, religion and region.

3) One critic has written that "the poet uses poetry as a tool to celebrate both triumphs and defeats. It is a mirror as well as a shroud." Discuss how poetry can be used as a "tool" in today's world. Specifically, discuss how the poems in this book reflect (mirror) and reveal or veil (shroud) issues related to contemporary society.

4) Many of the poems in Rules of Hunger marry form to content. For example, the poem "Compulsions (& Obsessions)" uses a prose poem format to "contain" the relentlessness of the speaker's meaningless-yet absolutely wild-string of behaviors. These behaviors illustrate the psychodynamic of a person who uses repetitive actions as a means of feeling in control of the outer world. The prose "box form" of the poem is an illustration of that pseudo control imposed by the speaker on the world by useless, but contained, action. What other poems marry form to theme? In what ways does the form of those poems enhance the content?

5) Explore how the line between the "real world" and the "enchanted world" is often blurred in this book." What place do the ghosts have in this book? the lovers? the dreamers?

6) Another critic writes that the poet "assures us that hunger not only commands us, but guides and feeds us." In what ways can hunger command us? feed us? Discuss examples drawn from your own life.

7) What are the "rules" in this book?