Great Regulars: The lyric makes use of language

as a tool for the proliferation of meaning, and perhaps the convergence of the political and cultural backgrounds of both speaker and audience, as the guiding units of "human experience." By this maxim, any reading of [Elizabeth ] Willis admittedly falls short of the multiple evocations the poems aim to create. And perhaps this is the trick to interpreting Willis--not to attempt conclusive extractions of authorial design, but to generate meanings beyond intentions on the page.

In Address, Willis directs excesses of meaning into political examination and, by extension, into civic participation.

from Powells: Review-A-Day: Abigail Licad on Elizabeth Willis' "Address"

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