upon location and person; Russell Edson, Kenneth Koch, Wallace Stevens, Charles Wright and Emily Dickinson. Berman once expressed dismay that poetry offered too much freedom. Tate, under whom Berman studied, said the poems are "narratives that freeze life in impossible contortions", whereas Berman called them "psychedelic soap operas"; Heidi Julavits noted that Berman often distorted familiar concepts in his poetry. Scott Timberg cites "New York, New York" as an example of how "A typical Berman poem starts with an image almost iconic in its ordinariness, delivered in a flat tone". Written with direct attention on emotions, Actual Air poems include small-scale scenes and situations Berman extensively explored, the collection compared to a novel by one critic. The world concocted, analogous to that in his songs, is eccentric—with "plausible contexts" quickly altered by "an odd word" and domestic scenes "tinged with gothic weirdness". Using various styles of prose, Berman depicts, among other occurrences, "police officers [who] slowdance with target range silhouettes" and "blue deer [that] speak Fortran in the restroom". Berman's poetry has amassed admiration, including from Dara Wier and Billy Collins—Collins featuring him in an anthology. Rich Smith of The Stranger summarized Berman's poetic output as a "master[y of] the opening line, the surprising image, the lyric narrative, the warm abstraction, and the crucial skill of knowing when to use the Latin word or the German word". Aaron Calvin, writing for Pitchfork, wrote that the intersection of Berman's lyrics and poetry bolsters his legacy. Public image and self-perception Berman was acutely self-conscious with his public image. After the release of Purple Mountains he feared he would be seen as a depressive, and had earlier wished he could convey a less abrasive persona; on said album, he mused about "the self-created narratives that ha[d] haunted his dark nights of the soul". The cover for Tanglewood Numbers was a "deliberate, self-conscious identification with rock tradition", rather than previous outsiderdom. He kept note of musicians who had mentioned him in interviews and believed his music was unappreciated, having never held his work in esteem, besides his lyrical capability. Berman did not view Silver Jews as a "band that other bands would namedrop", in contrast to the likes of Smog or Will Oldham's bands. Although he once expressed a need for outside validation, he refused to read reviews or articles concerning him. By 2005, hoping to separate his self-perception from others, he had installed