SOURCE: Lazer, Hank. “Sacred Forgery and the Grounds of Poetic Archaeology: Armand Schwerner's The Tablets.” Chicago Review 46, no. 1 (winter 2000): 142-54.

In the following essay, Lazer excerpts Schwerner's own commentary on his work and opinions from other critics to formulate an assessment of, and response to, the final version of The Tablets, Schwerner's epic work of poetry that was published in full by the National Poetry Foundation in the year of the poet's death.

The final edition of Armand Schwerner's The Tablets arrives as a valuable, important book, extending and challenging our conceptions of poetry, reading, certainty, completeness, and instructing us in the value of humor and the centrality of various modes of not-doing. The National Poetry Foundation has done a beautiful job of producing this book, giving it a properly large page-size format, pricing the book reasonably, and including an excellent, helpful CD recording of Schwerner's superb reading...