This blog is by and for students (former and current) of “English 375: American Poetry,” taught by Nick Bromell at UMass, Amherst.

The blog’s name comes from the title of a poem by John Ashbery: “The One Thing that Can Save America.”

What does it mean to save America? Does America need to be saved? Saved from what? And what does poetry have to do with all this? What is poetry?

These are the kinds of questions we ask and try to answer on this blog.

This is also a place where present and former students of “American Poetry” can talk about poetry, share ideas, inform each other about poets old and new, let each other know about new books and upcoming readings, and in general network around their shared interest in poetry.