6/22/96

If the thing is going to fall out of its
slot as soon as you pull it off the
shelf what good is it? I
could have told you before thisxxxxxxxxxxx
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it had a feeling of time past but this
would not have influenced your conclusion.
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*

There is an air of insouciance
in the abstract writing of Ted Berrigan and
Charles Bernstein that you won't find
in John Ashbery and Gertrude Stein.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Precursors, Jackson
Mac Low when it is on the fringes of
nonsense, as much great
humor). Humor tells us that there
truly exists a non-business
aspect of life. While this is
implied in Ashbery's work, in
Mac Low and Bernstein's you live in
it. Insolence is the key- a tone
you will find liberally represented in
the work of Andrews, DiPalma, Watten,
'Hejinian, Silliman, Davies,and the
L=A writers on the whole.
I feel that many readers and
commentators find this insolence
intimidating.Although the details
of revolt may not be foregrounded
the attitude is liberally represented
almost anywhere you look.

6/29/96

Sharon Cameron p. 465 Emily Dickenson

I heard a fly buzz-when I did
The stillness in the Room
Was like the stillness in the Air
Between the Heaves of Storm

The eyes around had hung them dry-

My early poem Sound and Silence
takes...sound particularly of the present...

Even when confused with other sounds
sounds take on a striking
individuality in their occurance

When thilngs become a given they lose
their attachment to particular personalities.
Cage and Mac Low helped move me
closer to that.

The attempt to enunciate a
particular direction fades into a
surrounding presence- a
storm- no- a field- no
a backdrop of particularities.

The usual is "there" and you can
go to "it." The sound is "there"
but "it" comes to you. *You*
must be receptive to receive it.

Poetry- not to be able to speak
of it (in order?) to hear it.

Combinatory or separate.

Waiting.

A different genre- ominous or detached.

Noise. Disturbing sounds, interrupting sounds.

Occurance, movement, approaching, departing.

"And I'll be your aural eyeness."
p.623- Finnigan's Wake