Jack Spicer's "serial poem"--"a book-length progression of short poems that function together as a single movement" (so described by Rob McLennan)
Spicer, in lecture: "A serial poem, in its essence, has to be chronological. In other words, the book, which is a unit like a poem is, has to be absolutely chronological. It has to be chronological in the writing of the poems. You can’t just say, 'well, I wrote a lot about birds and I wrote a lot about animals and I wrote a lot about flowers, so all my poems for the last five years which I’d like to get published, some of which have been published in magazines, I’ll distinguish in three parts.' That’s not the kind of thing."
the serial poem can invite a "sprawling lack of closure" (BookForum)
Spicer, in lecture: "Robin [Blaser] once said, in talking about a serial poem, that it’s as if you go into a room, a dark room. A light is turned on for a minute. Then it’s turned off again and you go into a different room where a light is turned on and turned off."