Lyric essay examples worth reading
The most useful examples are ones where the form is load-bearing: remove the lyric structure and the piece stops working. A few, from this archive and the wider canon, are below.
From this shelf
Level End by Brian Oliu is a lyric essay in the shape of a video game walkthrough. The second-person, imperative form of the walkthrough carries a subject the essay never states directly, which is exactly what a lyric essay does.
The wider canon
The form is associated with writers like John D’Agata, who edited influential anthologies of it, Anne Carson, whose work sits between poem and essay, and Maggie Nelson, whose fragmentary books think by juxtaposition. Reading any of them shows the range: the lyric essay is a method, not a length.
What to look for
In a good example, the shape is not decoration. Ask whether the piece could be rewritten as a straight essay without losing its meaning. If it could, it was never really a lyric essay.
Then try writing one
See how to write a lyric essay, and the definition at what is a lyric essay.