The Vogue for Questions Continues
Evelio's Meme (Blindheit) {click here}
Thanks to Evelio for sending me the following questions.
1. Total number of books I've owned:
About 8000 (figuring
about 100 per box,
I moved recently and
gave away or sold 40 boxes
and moved 40)
2. Last book I bought:
I bought 6 books at McIntyre
and Moore in Somerville, on
Memorial day. They were:
*Theodore Dreiser's "Every Month"*
edited by Nancy Warner Barrineau.
Hardbound, Unversity of Georgia Press,
1996. Paid $9. Theodore Dreiser's
earliest writings, October 1895-
September 1897, published
in a piano music magazine
of the era. Dreiser's brother
was a songwriter. Many of
these articles are intensely
political and anticipate Dreiser's
first novel *Sister Carrie*.
Mircea Eliade, *Journal III:
1970-1978*, Hardbound,
University of Chicago Press,
1989. Paid $9. Eliade's journals
are classics in the form. "17 October.
Joint seminar with Paul Ricoeur on
hermaneutics in philosophy and
the history of religions. Ricoeur
gives an excellent historic
overview, from Aristotle up to Kant."
Anne Sexton, *A Self-Portrait in Letters*,
edited by Linda Gray Sexton and
Lois Ames. Hardbound,
Houghton Mifflin, Boston,
1977. Paid $7.50. The
famous volume, 433 pages.
Possibly a first edition.
"Perhaps now I have learned
only one thing, a very American
thing- that to fail (the endurance
shattered, broken into small
unimporant pieces) is the ultimate
humiliation. How does one muddy
oneself with failure in this
'literary marketplace' and survive?"
George Orwell, *Essays,
Journalism and Letters*,
three volumes: 1: An Age Like This,
1920-1940; 2: My Country Right or Left,
1940-1943; 3: As I Please, 1943-1945.,
edited by Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus,
David R. Godine, 2000. Softcovers,
paid $9 a volume. "As I write,
highly civilized human beings are
flying overhead trying to kill me."
3.
Last book I read.
Cathy Yardley, *L. A Woman*,
Worldwide Library, 2002.
Another in a welter of novels
coming out of contemporary L.A.,
probably engendered by
the novels of Kate Braverman,
including *Wonders of the West*,
1993, and *Palm Latitudes*. In
Yardley's LA Woman, sedate
Sarah leaves suburban Northern
CA for LA and becomes wilder,
and wiser. Subway reading,
a little on the trashy side, but I
enjoyed it. Purchased for $1
on an outside shelf at Ivy's
Books on the Upper West Side.
4.
Four books that mean a lot to me.
Lynne Dreyer,
*Lamplights Used
To Feed The Deer*,
Some of Us Press, c. 1975.
"And then I looked down I/
saw not only thousands of people
/but thousands of people making/
noises, wailing"
Nada Gordon, *V. Imp*,
Faux Press, 2003.
"Poetry...I too.../my head...I won't go into it"
Douglas Messerli, ed.
*The Gertrude Stein Awards
In Innovative Poetry*, Sun and Moon,
1995. "Suspend craft,
hesitation, influence,
and dramatize/inherent
wilderness (light side of sin..."
- Sheila Murphy, "Floor Piece #4"
Daniel Davidson, *Product*, e.g., 1991.
"Humans are planning made
easy, all the thorny, perplexing,
tedious situations that sell."
***************************************
Passing the baton to:
Phaneronoemikon (Lanny Quarles) {click here}
and
Elsewhere (Gary Sullivan) {click here}
Distribution Automatique
Monday, June 6
Sunday, June 5
Nada Gordon and Corinne Robins
gave excellent readings at the Ceres Gallery
on Thursday evening. If you weren't there you
didn't get to hear Corinne's poems about
artists, including a beautiful one about Joseph
Cornell. Nada read a terrific autobiographical
poem, in a mode of channeling Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, I think it was.
Also at the reading I got to meet
Burt Kimmelman, who is the editor of the recently (1/05) pubished Companion to 20th Century American Poetry {click here}, and who
has promised to send me a copy
of one of his own books of poetry.
The four volume compendium includes discussions
of the following poets:
Companion Poets, poems, topics, etc {click here}
*****************************
Downfall {click here}
Thanks to Heathens in Heat {click here} for
posting this review of the
recent movie about Hitler,
a balanced review that rightly
takes issue with the inevitable
"humanizing" of the Nazis this
film indulges in.
***********************
Who cares? {click here}
***************************
gave excellent readings at the Ceres Gallery
on Thursday evening. If you weren't there you
didn't get to hear Corinne's poems about
artists, including a beautiful one about Joseph
Cornell. Nada read a terrific autobiographical
poem, in a mode of channeling Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, I think it was.
Also at the reading I got to meet
Burt Kimmelman, who is the editor of the recently (1/05) pubished Companion to 20th Century American Poetry {click here}, and who
has promised to send me a copy
of one of his own books of poetry.
The four volume compendium includes discussions
of the following poets:
Companion Poets, poems, topics, etc {click here}
*****************************
Downfall {click here}
Thanks to Heathens in Heat {click here} for
posting this review of the
recent movie about Hitler,
a balanced review that rightly
takes issue with the inevitable
"humanizing" of the Nazis this
film indulges in.
***********************
Who cares? {click here}
***************************
Friday, June 3
The Silence of the Lambs
"The arrogance of critics prospers, even fattens,
on the silence of the poets over whom the critic
means to tyrannize."
Jerome Rothenberg {click here}
thanks to Mappemunde (Tim Peterson) {click here} for the link.
Parrhesia
from Gary Sullivan's *Elsewhere*
"Just before leaving, I had a brief
but kind of strange conversation
with Bruce Andrews.
I hadn't seen him in a while,
not since the Coolidge/Gizzi reading,
where I had given him--Bruce--a copy of my comic.
Bruce congratulated me on the comic,
said that while he hadn't read it,
he didn't think it was worth my having
dropped out of the scene for a year
to create. I reminded him
that I had been "missing" really
only for half a year, and he said,
"even so." He said it nicely enough,
so perhaps he simply meant
that he missed me.
But the subtext seemed to be
"What you're doing isn't worth
the time you're spending on it."
Wasn't sure how to respond to that.
I could have, I suppose,
reminded him that my procedure
is different from his own,
that drawing comics physically
takes a lot of time, and
that it is a learned skill--very
different from scribbling on
3x5s while on auto-pilot,
which he's been doing for the
last twenty years or so.
Too, I felt like reminding him
that I had already sold more
copies of my little
self-published comic in
its first month than that
powerhouse Sun & Moon
probably sold of what's
considered his best book,
I Don't Have Any Paper, Or Shut Up,
in its first year in print.
This is hubris, of course,
but if sales continue as they've
been, I'll sell out of the first printing
before a year has gone by, whereas
Shut Up was published
more than a decade ago, and
I don't think it has yet gone
into a second printing.
I can't imagine that more than
1000 copies were made.
I suppose I could have patiently
explained all of that to him, but
I was tired after a long day of working.
Plus, it seemed more intended
as a kind of conversation stopper, not starter.
His comment--and he's famous
for these kinds of comments--
shouldn't have bothered me,
but it did. As a personal slight, sure,
but more as a kind of reminder
of the worst aspects of the poetry
scene, of why it can sometimes
seem a monumental waste of
one's energy and resources to
engage with it. If one's interaction
with the poetry scene leads to
these kinds of banal but hurtful
conversations, why would anyone
in their right mind steal time away
from their creative endeavors to be
available for them?
Of course, I'm overreacting. (
I'm a Leo; we do that.)
The truth is, I had a great time with
everyone else, picked up some
wonderful-looking books,
and look forward to the next event,
which is tonight, I realize:
The Hanging Loose book party
at Teachers & Writers.
New books by Sharon Mesmer
and Jeni Olin! I guess I have to go to the ATM."
rom Gary Sulllivan's
Elsewhere {click here}
for the complete text excerpted from
above scroll down to *Getting Out More*
"The arrogance of critics prospers, even fattens,
on the silence of the poets over whom the critic
means to tyrannize."
Jerome Rothenberg {click here}
thanks to Mappemunde (Tim Peterson) {click here} for the link.
Parrhesia
from Gary Sullivan's *Elsewhere*
"Just before leaving, I had a brief
but kind of strange conversation
with Bruce Andrews.
I hadn't seen him in a while,
not since the Coolidge/Gizzi reading,
where I had given him--Bruce--a copy of my comic.
Bruce congratulated me on the comic,
said that while he hadn't read it,
he didn't think it was worth my having
dropped out of the scene for a year
to create. I reminded him
that I had been "missing" really
only for half a year, and he said,
"even so." He said it nicely enough,
so perhaps he simply meant
that he missed me.
But the subtext seemed to be
"What you're doing isn't worth
the time you're spending on it."
Wasn't sure how to respond to that.
I could have, I suppose,
reminded him that my procedure
is different from his own,
that drawing comics physically
takes a lot of time, and
that it is a learned skill--very
different from scribbling on
3x5s while on auto-pilot,
which he's been doing for the
last twenty years or so.
Too, I felt like reminding him
that I had already sold more
copies of my little
self-published comic in
its first month than that
powerhouse Sun & Moon
probably sold of what's
considered his best book,
I Don't Have Any Paper, Or Shut Up,
in its first year in print.
This is hubris, of course,
but if sales continue as they've
been, I'll sell out of the first printing
before a year has gone by, whereas
Shut Up was published
more than a decade ago, and
I don't think it has yet gone
into a second printing.
I can't imagine that more than
1000 copies were made.
I suppose I could have patiently
explained all of that to him, but
I was tired after a long day of working.
Plus, it seemed more intended
as a kind of conversation stopper, not starter.
His comment--and he's famous
for these kinds of comments--
shouldn't have bothered me,
but it did. As a personal slight, sure,
but more as a kind of reminder
of the worst aspects of the poetry
scene, of why it can sometimes
seem a monumental waste of
one's energy and resources to
engage with it. If one's interaction
with the poetry scene leads to
these kinds of banal but hurtful
conversations, why would anyone
in their right mind steal time away
from their creative endeavors to be
available for them?
Of course, I'm overreacting. (
I'm a Leo; we do that.)
The truth is, I had a great time with
everyone else, picked up some
wonderful-looking books,
and look forward to the next event,
which is tonight, I realize:
The Hanging Loose book party
at Teachers & Writers.
New books by Sharon Mesmer
and Jeni Olin! I guess I have to go to the ATM."
rom Gary Sulllivan's
Elsewhere {click here}
for the complete text excerpted from
above scroll down to *Getting Out More*
Thursday, June 2
Radical Druid Asks:
1. Do you write with the intent of submitting (and getting published)? Is that your primary objective in writing poetry (publishing to print media, or online journals, or other outlets [i.e., contests, prizes, etc.])?
I fell in love wtih the printed page at an early age. So I
always wanted to see my writing in print and be a part
of the vast libraries of books I loved so much as a child.
My earliest poems were imitations
of my favorite poets:
A.E. Housmnan and Thomas Gray,
poets I read in the high school anthology.
Though I heard e.e.cummings and Lewis Warsh read in college in NY in the early 60's, I didn't
discover many of my favorite contemporaries
until the middle to late 60's and on to the 70's. Meanwhile, I had strongly pulled away from trying to publish, when certain late 60's
anti-ego values became attractive to me. At this point, my social concerns and anti-war activities, and a concommitant quest for answers
to personal concerns submerged
aesthetic concerns in favor of wanting and needing to understand things-to answer life's
questions. Jackson Mac Low's poetry became an inspiration and challenge, as did the work of John Ashbery, the work and teaching
of Bernadette Mayer and the
work of Robert Smithson and Vito Acconci.
It wasn't until I began to give readings
after participating in Bernadette Mayer's
workshop in the early 70's that I again
started to get a handle on where poetry and publishing might fit into my life after my lttle bit
of publishing poems in the middle 60's. I see now that my love of abstraction in poetry and art,
but my simultaneous interest in
psychology and philosphy just
wouldn't mesh to a point that I
could see a way for my many
extremely varied experiments
to arrive in print; though I was very
interested in (but still shy about
at first) reading them aloud when invited.
The issue for me was that my poems
were meant to be stationary
points in the frequently conflctual
currents of experience and thought;
they felt like part of a personal
project that I couldn't easily frame
within a public persona.
While all of this was intensely
problematic career wise, my
relative obscurity seemed to
allow an internal fanning
of the flame of my poetic
concerns and interests,
in the same way that my
avoidance of academic
employment helped me to
remain enthusiastic about
literature in general, or so it
seemed. I guess I really didn't
want to professionalize my
writing interests. Eventually,
after discovering some ideas
in the work of Paul Valery,
working with poetics offered a
method for dealing with such
concerns that paralleled my
use of psychoanalysis in
working with my personal
issues and those of others-
an approach that seemed more
constructive to me; these were
modes of connecting my
experiences and activities
with others that still allowed
my poetic process to remain
somewhat private,. Presenting my writing
to others has consistently created
personal challenges for me,
even at times seemingly
insurmountable challenges
and conflcts in terms of my inner
concerns with the issues in the work
itself. I never liked the emotionally
cumbersome process of arranging
and submitting my work for
publcation, though I certainly
enjoyed and benefitted from
seeing my works in print when
they were published and
having them available in an
attractive and convenient way
to readers. As I've said countless
times now, and never seem to tire of
saying, weblogging and the web in
general have, for the first time, made
available some of the rapidity and availability of interaction and response, combined
with the "automatic" archiving and
record-keeping, that I've always
longed for. One of my collages in the 80's was titled *Distribution Automatique.*
The other part of the publishing/critical
reviewing system I didn't appreciate was the academicism, a quality in
intellectual life I have had a problem with since my honors courses in college. I'm uncomfortable with
pretentiousness and afraid and worried about seeing
it increase in myself; though
I cerainly enjoy the satisfactions
and pleasures of eperiencing
my own and others'
successes in doing artistic work
1. Do you write with the intent of submitting (and getting published)? Is that your primary objective in writing poetry (publishing to print media, or online journals, or other outlets [i.e., contests, prizes, etc.])?
I fell in love wtih the printed page at an early age. So I
always wanted to see my writing in print and be a part
of the vast libraries of books I loved so much as a child.
My earliest poems were imitations
of my favorite poets:
A.E. Housmnan and Thomas Gray,
poets I read in the high school anthology.
Though I heard e.e.cummings and Lewis Warsh read in college in NY in the early 60's, I didn't
discover many of my favorite contemporaries
until the middle to late 60's and on to the 70's. Meanwhile, I had strongly pulled away from trying to publish, when certain late 60's
anti-ego values became attractive to me. At this point, my social concerns and anti-war activities, and a concommitant quest for answers
to personal concerns submerged
aesthetic concerns in favor of wanting and needing to understand things-to answer life's
questions. Jackson Mac Low's poetry became an inspiration and challenge, as did the work of John Ashbery, the work and teaching
of Bernadette Mayer and the
work of Robert Smithson and Vito Acconci.
It wasn't until I began to give readings
after participating in Bernadette Mayer's
workshop in the early 70's that I again
started to get a handle on where poetry and publishing might fit into my life after my lttle bit
of publishing poems in the middle 60's. I see now that my love of abstraction in poetry and art,
but my simultaneous interest in
psychology and philosphy just
wouldn't mesh to a point that I
could see a way for my many
extremely varied experiments
to arrive in print; though I was very
interested in (but still shy about
at first) reading them aloud when invited.
The issue for me was that my poems
were meant to be stationary
points in the frequently conflctual
currents of experience and thought;
they felt like part of a personal
project that I couldn't easily frame
within a public persona.
While all of this was intensely
problematic career wise, my
relative obscurity seemed to
allow an internal fanning
of the flame of my poetic
concerns and interests,
in the same way that my
avoidance of academic
employment helped me to
remain enthusiastic about
literature in general, or so it
seemed. I guess I really didn't
want to professionalize my
writing interests. Eventually,
after discovering some ideas
in the work of Paul Valery,
working with poetics offered a
method for dealing with such
concerns that paralleled my
use of psychoanalysis in
working with my personal
issues and those of others-
an approach that seemed more
constructive to me; these were
modes of connecting my
experiences and activities
with others that still allowed
my poetic process to remain
somewhat private,. Presenting my writing
to others has consistently created
personal challenges for me,
even at times seemingly
insurmountable challenges
and conflcts in terms of my inner
concerns with the issues in the work
itself. I never liked the emotionally
cumbersome process of arranging
and submitting my work for
publcation, though I certainly
enjoyed and benefitted from
seeing my works in print when
they were published and
having them available in an
attractive and convenient way
to readers. As I've said countless
times now, and never seem to tire of
saying, weblogging and the web in
general have, for the first time, made
available some of the rapidity and availability of interaction and response, combined
with the "automatic" archiving and
record-keeping, that I've always
longed for. One of my collages in the 80's was titled *Distribution Automatique.*
The other part of the publishing/critical
reviewing system I didn't appreciate was the academicism, a quality in
intellectual life I have had a problem with since my honors courses in college. I'm uncomfortable with
pretentiousness and afraid and worried about seeing
it increase in myself; though
I cerainly enjoy the satisfactions
and pleasures of eperiencing
my own and others'
successes in doing artistic work
A Blogland Vogue for Questions:
Radical Druid Asks Jonathan Mayhew
Radical Druid {click here}
asks
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing) {click here}
and
Laura Carter {Ecritures Bleues) {click here}
answer
***********************************
Speaking of Whispers, Don't Miss These
Jack Kimball (Pantaloons) {click here}
boards time's winged chariot
Radical Druid Asks Jonathan Mayhew
Radical Druid {click here}
asks
Jonathan Mayhew (Bemsha Swing) {click here}
and
Laura Carter {Ecritures Bleues) {click here}
answer
***********************************
Speaking of Whispers, Don't Miss These
Jack Kimball (Pantaloons) {click here}
boards time's winged chariot
Tuesday, May 31
The Unbearable Lightness of Blogging
Listening to Sibelius, as played by Maxim Vengerov,
a little enervated after
dinner, and a long train ride home
after a holiday
weekend out of town, reading
Boynton (Melbourne)
opening the
mail, mostly damn bills,
reading the email, welcome words from friends,
reading
Never Neutral (Mexico City)
I'm home again.
Listening to Sibelius, as played by Maxim Vengerov,
a little enervated after
dinner, and a long train ride home
after a holiday
weekend out of town, reading
Boynton (Melbourne)
opening the
mail, mostly damn bills,
reading the email, welcome words from friends,
reading
Never Neutral (Mexico City)
I'm home again.
House of Fame
One thing about visiting my in-laws in Arlington is the shopping,
and, in particular-used book shopping- more on this
later (now the books are in the suitcases, we're leaving shortly)
but one amazing book we found was Chaucer's *House of Fame*,
a late 19th century copy in the old English. Fascinating stuff
(hadn't even heard of this work before, though McIntyre and Moore,
the great scholarly used bookstore in Somerville, had tons
of books about it; the poem has a lot of material about dreams)
and I can't wait to read it and learn more about it. Another book
found in McIntyre and Moore, not purchased but examined led
to a fact that was interesting, though perhsps not that surprising-
the Routledge Press (published in 2000)
*Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry*
edited by Marc Willhardt with Alan Michael Parker, has a
lengthy entry on Charles Bernstein; the book, covering every
country in the world for the whole century, has only 900 entries sent
in by 75 contributors!
One thing about visiting my in-laws in Arlington is the shopping,
and, in particular-used book shopping- more on this
later (now the books are in the suitcases, we're leaving shortly)
but one amazing book we found was Chaucer's *House of Fame*,
a late 19th century copy in the old English. Fascinating stuff
(hadn't even heard of this work before, though McIntyre and Moore,
the great scholarly used bookstore in Somerville, had tons
of books about it; the poem has a lot of material about dreams)
and I can't wait to read it and learn more about it. Another book
found in McIntyre and Moore, not purchased but examined led
to a fact that was interesting, though perhsps not that surprising-
the Routledge Press (published in 2000)
*Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry*
edited by Marc Willhardt with Alan Michael Parker, has a
lengthy entry on Charles Bernstein; the book, covering every
country in the world for the whole century, has only 900 entries sent
in by 75 contributors!
Monday, May 30
Poetics Trek Episode 6: Memorial Day
The Vogue Continues
Limetree {click here}
Kemel Zaldivar {click here}
{P.S. Note the contrasting answers
to question 5; inevitable absorption
in poetry as a way of life or
"my vocabulary did this to me"
windbagging: you choose}
The Vogue Continues
Limetree {click here}
Kemel Zaldivar {click here}
{P.S. Note the contrasting answers
to question 5; inevitable absorption
in poetry as a way of life or
"my vocabulary did this to me"
windbagging: you choose}
Sunday, May 29
Swept Away
Jonathan's Vogue-for-Questions Solo,
plus sets from JEWISHYIRISHY
and A New Broom
Bemsha Swing {click here}
JEWISHYIRISHY {click here}
A New Broom {click here}
Jonathan's Vogue-for-Questions Solo,
plus sets from JEWISHYIRISHY
and A New Broom
Bemsha Swing {click here}
JEWISHYIRISHY {click here}
A New Broom {click here}
A Vogue for Answers, Episode 4
It's such a pleasure browsing other people's bookshelves,
don't you agree? Visiting in-laws in Arlington, Mass, we long
ago noticed their petit collection of charming antique books,
including a complete 19th Century edition of Addison & Steele's
18th Century version of blogging, *The Spectator*. Having
nearly finished a cup of double-strength coffee, we wandered
over to our sister-in-law's I-book. And to our endless joy we
were charmed to start the morning reading Nada Gordon's
entertaining answers to Professor Mayhew's most stimulating
questions to bloggers. Full disclosure: these days, Nada Gordon {click here}
our #1 favorite poet. Nada's response includes a quote from a series
of hilarious questions put to her by the then ardently courting Gary Sullivan
in Swoon {click here}
This is cool:
Ululations {click here}
It's such a pleasure browsing other people's bookshelves,
don't you agree? Visiting in-laws in Arlington, Mass, we long
ago noticed their petit collection of charming antique books,
including a complete 19th Century edition of Addison & Steele's
18th Century version of blogging, *The Spectator*. Having
nearly finished a cup of double-strength coffee, we wandered
over to our sister-in-law's I-book. And to our endless joy we
were charmed to start the morning reading Nada Gordon's
entertaining answers to Professor Mayhew's most stimulating
questions to bloggers. Full disclosure: these days, Nada Gordon {click here}
our #1 favorite poet. Nada's response includes a quote from a series
of hilarious questions put to her by the then ardently courting Gary Sullivan
in Swoon {click here}
This is cool:
Ululations {click here}
Saturday, May 28
A Blogland Vogue for Answers Part III
Ron Silliman {click here} steps up to the plate re: the Bemsha Swing poetics poll; and comments on the trend, including some kind words for a number of the blogged responses, including our own: Ron Silliman {click here}
************************
Jack Kimball writes:
"(a) I think the distinction drawn between ceaseless v. sporadic comp. practice is not altogether apparent."
For starters, check this out, for the distinction:
Robert Kelly publications {click here}
compare
Anne Sexton {click here}
compare:
Sylvia Plath {click here}
compare:
Hart Crane {click here}
compare:
Charles Baudelaire {click here}
compare:
Frank Kuenstler {click here}
Selected bibliography- Wallace Stevens
* THREE TRAVELLERS WATCH A SUNRISE, pub. 1916 - play
* CARLOS AMONG THE CANDLES, 1917 - play
* HARMONIUM, 1923 (rev. ed. 1931)
* IDEAS OF ORDER, 1935
* OWL'S CLOVER, 1936
* THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR, AND OTHER POEMS, 1937
* PARTS OF A WORLD, 1942
* NOTES TOWARD A SUPREME FICTION, 1942
* ESTHÉTIQUE DU MAL, 1945
* TRANSPORT TO SUMMER, 1947
* THE AURORAS AUTUMN, 1950
* THE NECESSARY ANGEL, 1951
* SELECTED POEMS, 1952
* THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1954
* OPUS POSTHUMOUS, 1957
* LETTERS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1966 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* THE PALM AT THE END OF THE MIND: SELECTED POEMS AND A PLAY, 1971 (play: Bowl, Cat and Broomstick)
* SOUVENIRS AND PROPHECIES, 1977 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* SECRETARIES OF THE MOON, 1986
* SUR PLUSIEURS BEAUX SUJECTS, 1989
* COLLECTED POETRY AND PROSE, 1996
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The more important thing is,
Jack Kimball {click here} is a damn fine poet...
Ron Silliman {click here} steps up to the plate re: the Bemsha Swing poetics poll; and comments on the trend, including some kind words for a number of the blogged responses, including our own: Ron Silliman {click here}
************************
Jack Kimball writes:
"(a) I think the distinction drawn between ceaseless v. sporadic comp. practice is not altogether apparent."
For starters, check this out, for the distinction:
Robert Kelly publications {click here}
compare
Anne Sexton {click here}
compare:
Sylvia Plath {click here}
compare:
Hart Crane {click here}
compare:
Charles Baudelaire {click here}
compare:
Frank Kuenstler {click here}
Selected bibliography- Wallace Stevens
* THREE TRAVELLERS WATCH A SUNRISE, pub. 1916 - play
* CARLOS AMONG THE CANDLES, 1917 - play
* HARMONIUM, 1923 (rev. ed. 1931)
* IDEAS OF ORDER, 1935
* OWL'S CLOVER, 1936
* THE MAN WITH THE BLUE GUITAR, AND OTHER POEMS, 1937
* PARTS OF A WORLD, 1942
* NOTES TOWARD A SUPREME FICTION, 1942
* ESTHÉTIQUE DU MAL, 1945
* TRANSPORT TO SUMMER, 1947
* THE AURORAS AUTUMN, 1950
* THE NECESSARY ANGEL, 1951
* SELECTED POEMS, 1952
* THE COLLECTED POEMS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1954
* OPUS POSTHUMOUS, 1957
* LETTERS OF WALLACE STEVENS, 1966 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* THE PALM AT THE END OF THE MIND: SELECTED POEMS AND A PLAY, 1971 (play: Bowl, Cat and Broomstick)
* SOUVENIRS AND PROPHECIES, 1977 (ed. by Holly Stevens)
* SECRETARIES OF THE MOON, 1986
* SUR PLUSIEURS BEAUX SUJECTS, 1989
* COLLECTED POETRY AND PROSE, 1996
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The more important thing is,
Jack Kimball {click here} is a damn fine poet...
Friday, May 27
A Blogland Vogue for Answers
Laura Carter, Odalisque, Bill Marsh, Jack Kimball and Radical Druid
sing out new answers to Jonathan Mayhew's cool poetics questions
Laura Carter likes our question 5 answer below and calls it "heartfelt"
Jack Kimball demolishes our question 5 argument with verve and savvy
Right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}
Laura Carter, Odalisque, Bill Marsh, Jack Kimball and Radical Druid
sing out new answers to Jonathan Mayhew's cool poetics questions
Laura Carter likes our question 5 answer below and calls it "heartfelt"
Jack Kimball demolishes our question 5 argument with verve and savvy
Right now on
Bemsha Swing {click here}
Thursday, May 26
Tuesday, May 24
A Blogland Vogue For Questions
Who knows how fads get started.
When I was a kid there was
always a season for an activity,
but it was hard to tell which
kid ushered in the fad.
There was a skating season where
every kid showed up outside on skates,
there was a bike
season, a handball season,
a stickball season,
a coin collecting season,
a card playing season, a carry around
your new transistor radio
and lean against the cars and
listen to them together season.
Once I even
started a fad in my set for wearing
jackets with bird decals sewed
onto them; it got around further
and lasted longer than I expected.
Anyway, you always did
what the others did, though
some activities might interest
you more than others.
Of course, your favorite
thing would always come back
into vogue eventually.
Well, as you must have noticed,
the same tendency takes place here
in Blogland. We have the take
a test online season (my least
favorite), we will no doubt have
a write a few words on Star Wars
season, we have a write in the
comments section season
(going on right now), and also,
right now, thanks to Sullivan and Gordon
we are noticing a tendency towards
comics (boys) (Gary's and the ever-
popular poetry comic blog of Jim Behrle)
and fashions (girls)-no doubt Nada's
interest in fashion will trigger quite a buzz!
At the present moment in literary
Blogland there is a fad for asking and
answering questions in poetics.
I'm not sure who started it,
but of course it is Ron Silliman's answers to
some set of questions floating around
that bloggers took notice of.
At the moment on *Bemsha Swing*
you will find a set of questions I dare
you to read, if you are a blogger,
and not find at least one
you want to answer on your blog right now.
I read them very late last night, and was
even tempted to get started right
then and there, though I had
just gone through an intensive
grilling of my own, as it happens,
for separate reasons, from a
couple of poet friends. But more
on that later.
Jonathan Mayhew's questions,
(for R.S. and anyone else):
Bemsha Swing {click here}
when looked at together as a group,
probably have a thread. But I
am right now too excited about one of them
to stop and think about that.
More than likely, I have to admit, I am
picking one at random.
My hunch is that, at least
around here, the
fad will continue for days,
and more than likely on many other
blogs, but who knows.
Like kids' seasons, Blogland’s are ephemeral.
Here is the question I picked:
5. Is "total absorption in poetry" benign?
How about "poetry as a way of life"?
After falling asleep last night,
I woke up this morning thinking about things
that go best with this question,
though I have to admit, all of Jonathan's
questions I find intriguing. He is
quite the blog poetics
provocateur, in his own quiet
and unassuming way!
I have a feeling that total absorption in
poetry is not so benign in the (very) long run,
but exhilarating and generative in the short run.
By short run I mean, maybe
a decade. By long run I mean a lifetime.
In my observation, total absorption
in poetry in the long run leads, as
Shakespeare put it, to an early "anecdotage."
One of the reasons I avoided becoming
a poetry professor when I was in
an English honors program in college
is that it seemed to me that even my
most brilliant and favorite professors
appeared to be in a kind of zombie state of
automatic recitation of things they had said
before countless times. In a friend
or lover this state of consciousness
might be boring and difficult to tolerate; but
for a poet, it seemed to my young perception,
this might be deadly, or even lethal.
At least in this one way my insight was prescient.
The tendency to bore other people is a trait
that each and every poet is obliged to
track with the persistence of a terrier. Or
else. Or else, what? You know!
Again: 5. Is "total absorption in poetry" benign?
How about "poetry as a way of life"?
I've noticed that (again, in the long run,
the long run being a lifetime) poets fall
into two types. The first type
writes-and publishes- book
after book without cease, and gives
regular readings the same way.
They never do anything else, and revel in their
total absorption in poetry. The second type
eventually finds other outlets as well for their
energy. On the whole, a distinguishing
characteristic of most (lifetime) poets is
an outstanding access to energy.
Here's where I find it necessary to offer a second
speculation that many other poets
might not agree with. In my opinion:
the inspiration
to write poetry is sporadic.
I think the intuitive inspiration to write a poem, for this
reason, should not be forced.
I found early on that if I forced myself to write poetry,
the result was wooden. The best analogy
that I can think of to writing poems
(never thing of writing "poetry" a sure
danger sign; only write "poems") is creating
melodies. Sit down at your piano or
take out your guitar right now. Try to create
a new melody and you will see what I mean.
Ninety-nine percent or more of your
production will be of two types: the first type
might be usable: a derivative offshoot
of another melody. Actually, this type is
fairly interesting. But most of your production
will be of the second type, the type I call
"noodling around." Listen to a lot of the
classical music literature and be honest:
even among many famous works, there is
tons and tons of noodling around. You will
find this even in such stellar composers as Schubert,
Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. Haydn is
amazing in this regard; an incredible number
of melodies that are identifiable and distinctive.
The same for incredible Chopin. But
most composers noodle around for a
lot of the time; they noodle
around in an interesting
way, but a lot of what they write
is just kind of, well, noodling around!
You see what I'm getting at;
The same is true for poets.
Most poets who produce book
after book without cease
(I do greatly admire this,
nevertheless, and hugely enjoy
the work of a number of poets
who work this way-including Jordan
Davis' endlessly absorbing blog project
Million Poems {click here}
, where he
has published well over a thousand poems
and extends the genial and impressive offer to write
a poem to order for anyone who emails him!)
do not consistently write
works of the same caliber and intensity
of engagement. What some ambitious poets
do to sustain their engagement with an audience
is - something else! They go "elsewhere" as
Gary Sullivan puts it. Ever noticed how often
interviewers ask well known poets:
"Have you been writing any poetry lately?" Since,
as I said, the majority of poets have abundant
amounts of energy, and since, as I believe to be the case,
actual poetic inspiration is, at best, sporadic, what many do is
try to transfer their unstoppable energy
into another, related medium.
As Emerson put it, "Write one poem and lean on
your oars forever..." Meaning,
writing a poem releases
more energy than can be put
into writing other poems.
Emerson is a fine example
of a poet who found a
way to express the
ingenious products of his mind
in other forms: through essays.
Another example
is the great Italian poet
Cesare Pavese who wrote
novels and a great diary,
as any reader of this
blog will attest, noticing
the many quotes of this literary
journal that have been posted here.
Paul Valery famously
took a twenty year break
from writing poetry to work
on poetics in his journals.
One of the best known example of this
tendency historically is, of course,
Thomas Hardy, whose poetry is read today
only by few scholars. But who among us hasn't
read at least one novel by Thomas Hardy?
*Jude the Obscure*! *The Mayor of Casterbridge*!
Hardy thought of these works as his minor interest.
Only his poems meant anything special to him.
Still today, few can stop with only one!
If you haven't read any you have a major treat in store.
How about Gertrude Stein's many prose works?
More recent examples include:
Allen Ginsberg's photography,
Bernadette Mayer's conceptual
art works and prose poetry, John Ashbery's
and David Shapiro's art criticism (he also makes collages),
Charles Bernstein''s opera
librettos (his *Shadowtime*, an opera about
Walter Benjamin, is being produced at
Lincoln Center this summer) and essays;
David Antin's talks;
Lewis Warsh's novels, Elaine Equi's collaborations
with artists, Bruce Andews' music and
collaborations with dancer Sally Silvers,
Jackson Mac Low's works for dancers,
and his sound and visual poems,
David Bromige's collaborations with David Denner,
the "novels" of Kathy Acker,
the playwriting and genre bending
creations of Carla Harryman;
There is, of course, best known to us, Ron Silliman's blog.
Think of the visual poetry of bloggers Geof Huth and Crag Hill,
Harry Stammer and Jukka-Pekka Kervenin
that offers another fertile and growing
field for poets' exploration and production.
Some poets abandon formal poetry altogether:
notably Marshall Reese and Vito Acconci.
These two became pioneers in video art and
Acconci went on to focus on outdoor sculptural installations.
Question: have they actually
abandoned the field of poetry or have they transmuted it?
Visual poetry is surely coming
to the fore as an acceptable poetic field of investigation.
(The great-grandparent of this work was, of course, Blake,
whose astoundingly beautiful,
brilliant and heroic creations of his own hand printed
illustrated and self-published books was a financial failure).
I was astonished when Ron Silliman recently
complimented Geof Huth's blog
dbqp visualizing poetics {click here}
and made the comment that he might be opening
the most novel new field of endeavor for poetry.
because I can remember a time-long ago- when Ron seemed
somewhat dubious about my interest in making collages
(although I surely could have been reading
in to a comment he made back then).
I have the sense that with poets who
are unable to at least occasionally
transmute their talents and
energies into other media-and even some
who have been able to do this- tend to
become obsessively interested in
cataloguing the data of contemporary poetry.
Poetry as a "way of life", it seems
to me, is a uniquely challenging, difficult proposition,
for the simple reason that there are
so few available public functions to perform.
There is publishing and editing:
Lyn Hejinian, Leslie Scalapino,
Tom Beckett's classic single poet issues
of the journal, *The Difficulties*
Barrett Watten, James Sherry, Douglas Messerli,
Matvei Yankelvich, Peter Ganick,
Juliana Spahr and Jena Osman's excellent
visual/verbal magazine *Chain*
to name but a few; then, of course,
there are the many excellent webzines.
*Sidereality*, *Shampoo*, *Poetic
Inhalation*, all created and posted by poets,
to mention but a handful.
There is running poetry series, witness
the recent energetic efforts of Bob Holman
at his own creation, the Bowery Poetry Club
and the countless coordinators throughout the years..
There is arts administration:
Ed Friedman, Anne Waldman
and coordinating and assisting at
the Poetry Project, right now Anselm Berrigan,
Cori Copp and Miles Champion,
of course many others throughout the years.
And this is only the people who have worked
in New York.
There is cultural and political
transformation through political acts
and organizing- Allen Ginsberg
and Leroi Jones;
essay writing and teaching: Bob Perelman,
Robert Creeley, who also worked on
many great collaborations with artists
such as Archie Rand and Susan Rothenberg;
drawing-Robert Grenier;
Jerome Sala, in additiion to publishing
his poetry, lately his witty ,social/politically insightful
*Look Slimmer Instantly* (Softskull, 2005)
has worked forever at a full time job in marketing/advertising
and is now completing, at the same time, a
Ph D at NYU in Cultural Studies,
the program created and administered by Andrew Ross.
Let me say that it is easier
to make a loving at
poetry than it is to make a
living at it, to say the least!
As a "way of life" people interested
in this field are well advised to find
additional avenues thorugh which to
connect with others that utilizes their
proclivity for aesthetic inspiration,
their "lust for life" you might say, in an allied field.
The growing cultural phenomenon of
poetry creation is, in a sense,
a form of momentum tending to
mount vertically, so to speak,
with little horizontal expansion
into the culture at large.
What scholars, cultural commentators
like Walter Benjamin and poets realize, looking back
historically, however,
is that it remains a powerful, crucial, albeit,
largely subliminal cultural intervention.
If you examine history you will see that
there is a clear tendency for poets, as they
age, to become discouraged about the
possibilities for career in poetry.
Not so long ago I read the
Journals of Stephen Spender
(beautiful book, by the way).
Now here was a famous
poet
("I think continually of those/
who were truly great")
who, having written in addition to his many
volumes of poetry,
countless books including a critical study of
TS Eliot and a book about the cultural phenomena of the Sixties,
who was an editor of a magazine (*Horizon*),
and a teacher with immensely wide and varied interests.
Yet Spender's final years were an
emotional misery. He was constantly trying
to find adjunct teaching jobs wherever he
could and spent much of his later
years apparently quite depressed.
I don't want to dwell on this topic,
but history abounds with similar episodes.
In dealing with the ebb and flow of
poetic inspiration, as in all things, there
is a Scylla and Charybdis.
There is the Scylla of neglecting one's muse
and a Charybdis of becoming her slave.
A poet is well advised to
remain alert in guiding the
ship of life among the reefs and seductions
and quick sands that plague the currents
of a poetry "career": if, indeed, there is such a thing,
per se.
Who knows how fads get started.
When I was a kid there was
always a season for an activity,
but it was hard to tell which
kid ushered in the fad.
There was a skating season where
every kid showed up outside on skates,
there was a bike
season, a handball season,
a stickball season,
a coin collecting season,
a card playing season, a carry around
your new transistor radio
and lean against the cars and
listen to them together season.
Once I even
started a fad in my set for wearing
jackets with bird decals sewed
onto them; it got around further
and lasted longer than I expected.
Anyway, you always did
what the others did, though
some activities might interest
you more than others.
Of course, your favorite
thing would always come back
into vogue eventually.
Well, as you must have noticed,
the same tendency takes place here
in Blogland. We have the take
a test online season (my least
favorite), we will no doubt have
a write a few words on Star Wars
season, we have a write in the
comments section season
(going on right now), and also,
right now, thanks to Sullivan and Gordon
we are noticing a tendency towards
comics (boys) (Gary's and the ever-
popular poetry comic blog of Jim Behrle)
and fashions (girls)-no doubt Nada's
interest in fashion will trigger quite a buzz!
At the present moment in literary
Blogland there is a fad for asking and
answering questions in poetics.
I'm not sure who started it,
but of course it is Ron Silliman's answers to
some set of questions floating around
that bloggers took notice of.
At the moment on *Bemsha Swing*
you will find a set of questions I dare
you to read, if you are a blogger,
and not find at least one
you want to answer on your blog right now.
I read them very late last night, and was
even tempted to get started right
then and there, though I had
just gone through an intensive
grilling of my own, as it happens,
for separate reasons, from a
couple of poet friends. But more
on that later.
Jonathan Mayhew's questions,
(for R.S. and anyone else):
Bemsha Swing {click here}
when looked at together as a group,
probably have a thread. But I
am right now too excited about one of them
to stop and think about that.
More than likely, I have to admit, I am
picking one at random.
My hunch is that, at least
around here, the
fad will continue for days,
and more than likely on many other
blogs, but who knows.
Like kids' seasons, Blogland’s are ephemeral.
Here is the question I picked:
5. Is "total absorption in poetry" benign?
How about "poetry as a way of life"?
After falling asleep last night,
I woke up this morning thinking about things
that go best with this question,
though I have to admit, all of Jonathan's
questions I find intriguing. He is
quite the blog poetics
provocateur, in his own quiet
and unassuming way!
I have a feeling that total absorption in
poetry is not so benign in the (very) long run,
but exhilarating and generative in the short run.
By short run I mean, maybe
a decade. By long run I mean a lifetime.
In my observation, total absorption
in poetry in the long run leads, as
Shakespeare put it, to an early "anecdotage."
One of the reasons I avoided becoming
a poetry professor when I was in
an English honors program in college
is that it seemed to me that even my
most brilliant and favorite professors
appeared to be in a kind of zombie state of
automatic recitation of things they had said
before countless times. In a friend
or lover this state of consciousness
might be boring and difficult to tolerate; but
for a poet, it seemed to my young perception,
this might be deadly, or even lethal.
At least in this one way my insight was prescient.
The tendency to bore other people is a trait
that each and every poet is obliged to
track with the persistence of a terrier. Or
else. Or else, what? You know!
Again: 5. Is "total absorption in poetry" benign?
How about "poetry as a way of life"?
I've noticed that (again, in the long run,
the long run being a lifetime) poets fall
into two types. The first type
writes-and publishes- book
after book without cease, and gives
regular readings the same way.
They never do anything else, and revel in their
total absorption in poetry. The second type
eventually finds other outlets as well for their
energy. On the whole, a distinguishing
characteristic of most (lifetime) poets is
an outstanding access to energy.
Here's where I find it necessary to offer a second
speculation that many other poets
might not agree with. In my opinion:
the inspiration
to write poetry is sporadic.
I think the intuitive inspiration to write a poem, for this
reason, should not be forced.
I found early on that if I forced myself to write poetry,
the result was wooden. The best analogy
that I can think of to writing poems
(never thing of writing "poetry" a sure
danger sign; only write "poems") is creating
melodies. Sit down at your piano or
take out your guitar right now. Try to create
a new melody and you will see what I mean.
Ninety-nine percent or more of your
production will be of two types: the first type
might be usable: a derivative offshoot
of another melody. Actually, this type is
fairly interesting. But most of your production
will be of the second type, the type I call
"noodling around." Listen to a lot of the
classical music literature and be honest:
even among many famous works, there is
tons and tons of noodling around. You will
find this even in such stellar composers as Schubert,
Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn. Haydn is
amazing in this regard; an incredible number
of melodies that are identifiable and distinctive.
The same for incredible Chopin. But
most composers noodle around for a
lot of the time; they noodle
around in an interesting
way, but a lot of what they write
is just kind of, well, noodling around!
You see what I'm getting at;
The same is true for poets.
Most poets who produce book
after book without cease
(I do greatly admire this,
nevertheless, and hugely enjoy
the work of a number of poets
who work this way-including Jordan
Davis' endlessly absorbing blog project
Million Poems {click here}
, where he
has published well over a thousand poems
and extends the genial and impressive offer to write
a poem to order for anyone who emails him!)
do not consistently write
works of the same caliber and intensity
of engagement. What some ambitious poets
do to sustain their engagement with an audience
is - something else! They go "elsewhere" as
Gary Sullivan puts it. Ever noticed how often
interviewers ask well known poets:
"Have you been writing any poetry lately?" Since,
as I said, the majority of poets have abundant
amounts of energy, and since, as I believe to be the case,
actual poetic inspiration is, at best, sporadic, what many do is
try to transfer their unstoppable energy
into another, related medium.
As Emerson put it, "Write one poem and lean on
your oars forever..." Meaning,
writing a poem releases
more energy than can be put
into writing other poems.
Emerson is a fine example
of a poet who found a
way to express the
ingenious products of his mind
in other forms: through essays.
Another example
is the great Italian poet
Cesare Pavese who wrote
novels and a great diary,
as any reader of this
blog will attest, noticing
the many quotes of this literary
journal that have been posted here.
Paul Valery famously
took a twenty year break
from writing poetry to work
on poetics in his journals.
One of the best known example of this
tendency historically is, of course,
Thomas Hardy, whose poetry is read today
only by few scholars. But who among us hasn't
read at least one novel by Thomas Hardy?
*Jude the Obscure*! *The Mayor of Casterbridge*!
Hardy thought of these works as his minor interest.
Only his poems meant anything special to him.
Still today, few can stop with only one!
If you haven't read any you have a major treat in store.
How about Gertrude Stein's many prose works?
More recent examples include:
Allen Ginsberg's photography,
Bernadette Mayer's conceptual
art works and prose poetry, John Ashbery's
and David Shapiro's art criticism (he also makes collages),
Charles Bernstein''s opera
librettos (his *Shadowtime*, an opera about
Walter Benjamin, is being produced at
Lincoln Center this summer) and essays;
David Antin's talks;
Lewis Warsh's novels, Elaine Equi's collaborations
with artists, Bruce Andews' music and
collaborations with dancer Sally Silvers,
Jackson Mac Low's works for dancers,
and his sound and visual poems,
David Bromige's collaborations with David Denner,
the "novels" of Kathy Acker,
the playwriting and genre bending
creations of Carla Harryman;
There is, of course, best known to us, Ron Silliman's blog.
Think of the visual poetry of bloggers Geof Huth and Crag Hill,
Harry Stammer and Jukka-Pekka Kervenin
that offers another fertile and growing
field for poets' exploration and production.
Some poets abandon formal poetry altogether:
notably Marshall Reese and Vito Acconci.
These two became pioneers in video art and
Acconci went on to focus on outdoor sculptural installations.
Question: have they actually
abandoned the field of poetry or have they transmuted it?
Visual poetry is surely coming
to the fore as an acceptable poetic field of investigation.
(The great-grandparent of this work was, of course, Blake,
whose astoundingly beautiful,
brilliant and heroic creations of his own hand printed
illustrated and self-published books was a financial failure).
I was astonished when Ron Silliman recently
complimented Geof Huth's blog
dbqp visualizing poetics {click here}
and made the comment that he might be opening
the most novel new field of endeavor for poetry.
because I can remember a time-long ago- when Ron seemed
somewhat dubious about my interest in making collages
(although I surely could have been reading
in to a comment he made back then).
I have the sense that with poets who
are unable to at least occasionally
transmute their talents and
energies into other media-and even some
who have been able to do this- tend to
become obsessively interested in
cataloguing the data of contemporary poetry.
Poetry as a "way of life", it seems
to me, is a uniquely challenging, difficult proposition,
for the simple reason that there are
so few available public functions to perform.
There is publishing and editing:
Lyn Hejinian, Leslie Scalapino,
Tom Beckett's classic single poet issues
of the journal, *The Difficulties*
Barrett Watten, James Sherry, Douglas Messerli,
Matvei Yankelvich, Peter Ganick,
Juliana Spahr and Jena Osman's excellent
visual/verbal magazine *Chain*
to name but a few; then, of course,
there are the many excellent webzines.
*Sidereality*, *Shampoo*, *Poetic
Inhalation*, all created and posted by poets,
to mention but a handful.
There is running poetry series, witness
the recent energetic efforts of Bob Holman
at his own creation, the Bowery Poetry Club
and the countless coordinators throughout the years..
There is arts administration:
Ed Friedman, Anne Waldman
and coordinating and assisting at
the Poetry Project, right now Anselm Berrigan,
Cori Copp and Miles Champion,
of course many others throughout the years.
And this is only the people who have worked
in New York.
There is cultural and political
transformation through political acts
and organizing- Allen Ginsberg
and Leroi Jones;
essay writing and teaching: Bob Perelman,
Robert Creeley, who also worked on
many great collaborations with artists
such as Archie Rand and Susan Rothenberg;
drawing-Robert Grenier;
Jerome Sala, in additiion to publishing
his poetry, lately his witty ,social/politically insightful
*Look Slimmer Instantly* (Softskull, 2005)
has worked forever at a full time job in marketing/advertising
and is now completing, at the same time, a
Ph D at NYU in Cultural Studies,
the program created and administered by Andrew Ross.
Let me say that it is easier
to make a loving at
poetry than it is to make a
living at it, to say the least!
As a "way of life" people interested
in this field are well advised to find
additional avenues thorugh which to
connect with others that utilizes their
proclivity for aesthetic inspiration,
their "lust for life" you might say, in an allied field.
The growing cultural phenomenon of
poetry creation is, in a sense,
a form of momentum tending to
mount vertically, so to speak,
with little horizontal expansion
into the culture at large.
What scholars, cultural commentators
like Walter Benjamin and poets realize, looking back
historically, however,
is that it remains a powerful, crucial, albeit,
largely subliminal cultural intervention.
If you examine history you will see that
there is a clear tendency for poets, as they
age, to become discouraged about the
possibilities for career in poetry.
Not so long ago I read the
Journals of Stephen Spender
(beautiful book, by the way).
Now here was a famous
poet
("I think continually of those/
who were truly great")
who, having written in addition to his many
volumes of poetry,
countless books including a critical study of
TS Eliot and a book about the cultural phenomena of the Sixties,
who was an editor of a magazine (*Horizon*),
and a teacher with immensely wide and varied interests.
Yet Spender's final years were an
emotional misery. He was constantly trying
to find adjunct teaching jobs wherever he
could and spent much of his later
years apparently quite depressed.
I don't want to dwell on this topic,
but history abounds with similar episodes.
In dealing with the ebb and flow of
poetic inspiration, as in all things, there
is a Scylla and Charybdis.
There is the Scylla of neglecting one's muse
and a Charybdis of becoming her slave.
A poet is well advised to
remain alert in guiding the
ship of life among the reefs and seductions
and quick sands that plague the currents
of a poetry "career": if, indeed, there is such a thing,
per se.
Monday, May 23
Monday, May 16
Art and Friends On A Serendipitous Sunday
Naps and strolls in Prospect Park on that lovely sunny Saturday (remember?)
prepared us well for the rigors of an art-filled Sunday in Queens. If you haven't
been out there lately, you must go soon! We began the day with a visit to our friend
Jean's gorgeous new studio-
Saturday was open studio day in this sunny,
beautifully designed collection of studios
at Jevenal Reis Studios- 43-01 22cd Street
(E or V train to 23rd St./Ely Ave.
#7 to 45th Road/Courthouse Square
G to Court Square)
(you take the same train to get to MOMA's PS 1
but after leaving the subway walk the opposite
direction to get to Jeval Reis Studios)-
walk north on 23rd Street (under the train
tracks) make a left on 44th Avenue
and right on 22 Street
Jean Foos
Images {click here}
In addition to work similar to the work you may view by clicking above,
Jean Foos has some exciting new work that includes printed fashion photos
which she has appropriated and painted over in her signature style.
You must see these witty and elegant works;
I hope she posts them on her site soon. Even better, we would love
to see them in a gallery & we wouldn't be at all suprised if a clever
curator saw this show and scooped them up!
From there we walked over to an opening at the Sculpture Center
for the grand opening of the Sculpture Center's new show
*Make It Now* a title with some double-edged meanings I thought
about a bit as we walked through this relatively recent site for new sculpture.
28 artists are shown here. The first floor is well worth the visit, even if only to
see the space if you haven't been here before. I should have been prepared
for the many synchroncities tha occurred on this Queens visit when I
realized that my favorite work in this show was by Charlie Foos!
This was a video he titled "Monument with Anthem". Probably it is the artist
who is sitting on a coin operated rocking horse in front of fairly delapidated
storefront. He is holding what is very likely a plastic or cardboard shield and
lance; an ancient cassette player sits on a pedestal playing Wagner's Sigfried Idyll
over and over- the tape skips and slows and speeds; the artist stares somewhat
glumly into the camera, while again and again he puts coins into the box so
that he can keep that wooden horse rocking. This work attraced me because
in addition to participating in the current plethora of works of art reflecting
and celebrating childhood (contemporary artists seemed determine to keep
their connection with their imaginations clear by holding on securely to those
fleeting freedoms -of thought and dream-of early life) this artist found a way
to gently laugh at himself and this trend towards cheap and simple materials,
toys and structures based on childhood pleasures. As I walked through the
show I marvelled at the almost total triumph of the artistic credos of such
contemporary giants as Richard Tuttle- whose philosophy of using inexpensive
materials in spontaneous and direct ways seems to now be pervasive among
younger artists- easily eclipsing the sculptural requirements of other ages demanding
such materials as marble, bronze and gleaming metals. The only exception to
this rule I have noted is in works like those of Timothy Hawkinson which require
extensive construction and use of electronic or electric machinery and gadgetry;
still, often in the case even of this work, artists like Charlie Foos stick to found
or discarded gadgets.
As we left the Sculpture Center lucky for us we ran into our friends, the poet
and art critic Connie Robins and her husband the sculptor Sal Romano.
Sal is known for his large sculptural installations employing metal constructions
and water. Recently at a visit to his studio I marvelled at a -for him- tiny work
which combined figurative and abstract elements, including a fish and triangles.
Sal and Connie decided to join us for a bit on our second visit to the giant
Greater New York 2005 show discussed below. On the way in we noticed that
a number of artists were carrying out large frames containing obviously recently ripped
paper with calligraphic type designs. As we entered the museum we ran into our
friend Jay Sanders, one of the curatorial assistants at the Maryann Boesky Gallery.
He and I chatted a bit about the current Sarah Sze show at Boesky (see sidebar)
and the fact that these ripped frames were used by a dance friend of his for a
performance that was ending at the very moment we walked in! Jay helped
Charles Bernstein curate the Poetry Plastique show we had the good fortune
to be part of in February 2001.
On this vist I remembered a number of works I saw the first time around and
really enjoyed. Sal also pointed out a couple that I had missed! Among these
was a hilarious peformance installation by Jamie Isenstein. Sal called me
over to an inset frame hung on the wall with what appeared to be a
plastic or molded hand inside. Sal said "Wait and watch." After a few moments
the hand moved! Then after awhile it moved again! We all discussed whether it
was real and hesitated awhile and then touched it. Surely this was the living hand
of a woman- obviously the artist. Hurrying over to the wall label I noticed it said
"2003 Performance Installation with picture frame, picture light and hand- or "Will Return"
sign." Ha-ha! What a piece. When we visited the neighboring room we saw the door
where the artist could be let in to sit. Sal wondered what she might be doing
in there- watching videos- drinking a coke- who knows? In another room Sal pointed
out a piece I had walked right by last week without noticing and walked right by
again on Sunday. Karyn Oliver has installed a false vertical column right next to
a real horizontal column on the ceiling of this gallery room. The column sits on top
of an antique brown wooden coffee table right in the center of the room. More
artistic hijinx and hilarity- excellent! Another double-take type work that I noticed
on the first visit but forgot take notes on is Courtney Smith's marvelous "Psyche
Complexo" (2003) owned by the artist and Roebling Hall. This impressive work
lists the following constituants: I wardrobe, 1 vanity with mirror, 1 stool with cushion,
2 side tables with mirrors, and new chrome plated hardware. In this piece, the furniture
is split in two and rehinged together creating a mysterious and claustrophobic effect,
indeed capable of well representing complex psychological states,
redolant with associations and "remembrance of things past." Another visit to
Aida Rulova's DVD projection with sound installation "It had no feelings" (2003)
convinced both Toni and I that this was among the best works. The altered voice
track repeats a story of what must have been a psychological trauma, repeated
again and again- the visual part shows faces hidden in light and the repeated
phrase "a bag over my head" suggests a terrifying experience. This is a must see and
hear! A return visit to Anna Conway's startling painting discussed and linked to
below revealed two tiny rowboats near the huge puppet head floating in the ocean.
We liked the painting on this visit even more. The DVD concerning the violinist mentioned
below was by King/Diaz de Leon and was filmed in digital video 2003-2004. We watched
the entire approximately 8 minute piece through in its entirety again! Two more
paintings definitely worth checking out:
Wade Guyton's {click here}
"untitled" 2005- a striking
constructivist style painting -inkjet on printed linen 39'x 37" and Lisi Raskin's "In
The Town Where I Was Born" (2004- Guild and Grayshkul Gallery)- a room full
of computer and electronic gadgetry is depicted mostly in bright yellows using
crayons and colored markers, another of the many memorable works
in this show echoing and recalling childhood. Another of the many excellent
projected DVD's in this show that must be mentioned is Nebojsa Seric Shoba's
eerie "Let There Be Light" depicting computer animations looking very much like
the creation of the world via mud slides. On the second floor don't forget to see
and listen to David Moreno's subtle 2004 electronic music in his work "Steremo*. The
piece is beautifully placed in front of a window with view of the sky and an old
adjacent brick building. The speakers, mounted on bending metal supports,
wave and bob as the music emerges giving the impression that you can physically
see the sounds. This is a theme in a good number of the pieces in this
show- various types of synesthesia. Throughout this show there are many pieces
placed so that you might discover them in surprising ways in this enormous
space with so many windows, corners, and stairways. Bethany Bristow's
aptly named "Insinutate" i(2005) is constructed of multiple site specific materials
including melted glass, feathers and corn syrup is placed inconspicuously on
a gallery window ledge in a hallway on the second floor. And, as we were leaving
the show I noticed again and remembered being stuck by on the first visit,
outside the gallery on a large ledge in front of a window, Bozidar Brazda's surprising
and frightening piece made out of a dummy lying down on the ledge and a parachute
lying nearby, blowing open and closing probably by means of a wind machine placed
nearby- this work suggested to me the breathless excitements- and severe risks-
of the artist who must jump into the unknown to achieve his or her discoveries-
and who, like all of us, must someday return to the ground beneath their feet after
their extravagant flights into the stratosphere of the imagination.
After this we headed downtown to our favorite restaurant the Orlin Cafe
on East 8th Street. And who walks by after a bit? Two poet friends, Mike
Scharf and Drew Gardner, We talked about the show (Drew decided
he did not want to read these notes before seeing ths show). We had
a chance to chat with Drew about movies, his workshop at the
Poetry Project and the fact that he is now working on putting together a CD
(hopefully to be heard soon on My Vocabulary) of my reading at the BPC with
Lee Anne Brown and Ange Mlinko and Drew's Poetics Orchestra. This
was indeed a serendipitous ending to our Sunday of Art- serendipity
which extended to quickly catching the Q home to Park Slope so
we could grab a quick bite and as quickly crash
into bed exhausted. Strangely, I dreamt
of a strikingly actual Paul Auster giving me advice about publishers!
Naps and strolls in Prospect Park on that lovely sunny Saturday (remember?)
prepared us well for the rigors of an art-filled Sunday in Queens. If you haven't
been out there lately, you must go soon! We began the day with a visit to our friend
Jean's gorgeous new studio-
Saturday was open studio day in this sunny,
beautifully designed collection of studios
at Jevenal Reis Studios- 43-01 22cd Street
(E or V train to 23rd St./Ely Ave.
#7 to 45th Road/Courthouse Square
G to Court Square)
(you take the same train to get to MOMA's PS 1
but after leaving the subway walk the opposite
direction to get to Jeval Reis Studios)-
walk north on 23rd Street (under the train
tracks) make a left on 44th Avenue
and right on 22 Street
Jean Foos
Images {click here}
In addition to work similar to the work you may view by clicking above,
Jean Foos has some exciting new work that includes printed fashion photos
which she has appropriated and painted over in her signature style.
You must see these witty and elegant works;
I hope she posts them on her site soon. Even better, we would love
to see them in a gallery & we wouldn't be at all suprised if a clever
curator saw this show and scooped them up!
From there we walked over to an opening at the Sculpture Center
for the grand opening of the Sculpture Center's new show
*Make It Now* a title with some double-edged meanings I thought
about a bit as we walked through this relatively recent site for new sculpture.
28 artists are shown here. The first floor is well worth the visit, even if only to
see the space if you haven't been here before. I should have been prepared
for the many synchroncities tha occurred on this Queens visit when I
realized that my favorite work in this show was by Charlie Foos!
This was a video he titled "Monument with Anthem". Probably it is the artist
who is sitting on a coin operated rocking horse in front of fairly delapidated
storefront. He is holding what is very likely a plastic or cardboard shield and
lance; an ancient cassette player sits on a pedestal playing Wagner's Sigfried Idyll
over and over- the tape skips and slows and speeds; the artist stares somewhat
glumly into the camera, while again and again he puts coins into the box so
that he can keep that wooden horse rocking. This work attraced me because
in addition to participating in the current plethora of works of art reflecting
and celebrating childhood (contemporary artists seemed determine to keep
their connection with their imaginations clear by holding on securely to those
fleeting freedoms -of thought and dream-of early life) this artist found a way
to gently laugh at himself and this trend towards cheap and simple materials,
toys and structures based on childhood pleasures. As I walked through the
show I marvelled at the almost total triumph of the artistic credos of such
contemporary giants as Richard Tuttle- whose philosophy of using inexpensive
materials in spontaneous and direct ways seems to now be pervasive among
younger artists- easily eclipsing the sculptural requirements of other ages demanding
such materials as marble, bronze and gleaming metals. The only exception to
this rule I have noted is in works like those of Timothy Hawkinson which require
extensive construction and use of electronic or electric machinery and gadgetry;
still, often in the case even of this work, artists like Charlie Foos stick to found
or discarded gadgets.
As we left the Sculpture Center lucky for us we ran into our friends, the poet
and art critic Connie Robins and her husband the sculptor Sal Romano.
Sal is known for his large sculptural installations employing metal constructions
and water. Recently at a visit to his studio I marvelled at a -for him- tiny work
which combined figurative and abstract elements, including a fish and triangles.
Sal and Connie decided to join us for a bit on our second visit to the giant
Greater New York 2005 show discussed below. On the way in we noticed that
a number of artists were carrying out large frames containing obviously recently ripped
paper with calligraphic type designs. As we entered the museum we ran into our
friend Jay Sanders, one of the curatorial assistants at the Maryann Boesky Gallery.
He and I chatted a bit about the current Sarah Sze show at Boesky (see sidebar)
and the fact that these ripped frames were used by a dance friend of his for a
performance that was ending at the very moment we walked in! Jay helped
Charles Bernstein curate the Poetry Plastique show we had the good fortune
to be part of in February 2001.
On this vist I remembered a number of works I saw the first time around and
really enjoyed. Sal also pointed out a couple that I had missed! Among these
was a hilarious peformance installation by Jamie Isenstein. Sal called me
over to an inset frame hung on the wall with what appeared to be a
plastic or molded hand inside. Sal said "Wait and watch." After a few moments
the hand moved! Then after awhile it moved again! We all discussed whether it
was real and hesitated awhile and then touched it. Surely this was the living hand
of a woman- obviously the artist. Hurrying over to the wall label I noticed it said
"2003 Performance Installation with picture frame, picture light and hand- or "Will Return"
sign." Ha-ha! What a piece. When we visited the neighboring room we saw the door
where the artist could be let in to sit. Sal wondered what she might be doing
in there- watching videos- drinking a coke- who knows? In another room Sal pointed
out a piece I had walked right by last week without noticing and walked right by
again on Sunday. Karyn Oliver has installed a false vertical column right next to
a real horizontal column on the ceiling of this gallery room. The column sits on top
of an antique brown wooden coffee table right in the center of the room. More
artistic hijinx and hilarity- excellent! Another double-take type work that I noticed
on the first visit but forgot take notes on is Courtney Smith's marvelous "Psyche
Complexo" (2003) owned by the artist and Roebling Hall. This impressive work
lists the following constituants: I wardrobe, 1 vanity with mirror, 1 stool with cushion,
2 side tables with mirrors, and new chrome plated hardware. In this piece, the furniture
is split in two and rehinged together creating a mysterious and claustrophobic effect,
indeed capable of well representing complex psychological states,
redolant with associations and "remembrance of things past." Another visit to
Aida Rulova's DVD projection with sound installation "It had no feelings" (2003)
convinced both Toni and I that this was among the best works. The altered voice
track repeats a story of what must have been a psychological trauma, repeated
again and again- the visual part shows faces hidden in light and the repeated
phrase "a bag over my head" suggests a terrifying experience. This is a must see and
hear! A return visit to Anna Conway's startling painting discussed and linked to
below revealed two tiny rowboats near the huge puppet head floating in the ocean.
We liked the painting on this visit even more. The DVD concerning the violinist mentioned
below was by King/Diaz de Leon and was filmed in digital video 2003-2004. We watched
the entire approximately 8 minute piece through in its entirety again! Two more
paintings definitely worth checking out:
Wade Guyton's {click here}
"untitled" 2005- a striking
constructivist style painting -inkjet on printed linen 39'x 37" and Lisi Raskin's "In
The Town Where I Was Born" (2004- Guild and Grayshkul Gallery)- a room full
of computer and electronic gadgetry is depicted mostly in bright yellows using
crayons and colored markers, another of the many memorable works
in this show echoing and recalling childhood. Another of the many excellent
projected DVD's in this show that must be mentioned is Nebojsa Seric Shoba's
eerie "Let There Be Light" depicting computer animations looking very much like
the creation of the world via mud slides. On the second floor don't forget to see
and listen to David Moreno's subtle 2004 electronic music in his work "Steremo*. The
piece is beautifully placed in front of a window with view of the sky and an old
adjacent brick building. The speakers, mounted on bending metal supports,
wave and bob as the music emerges giving the impression that you can physically
see the sounds. This is a theme in a good number of the pieces in this
show- various types of synesthesia. Throughout this show there are many pieces
placed so that you might discover them in surprising ways in this enormous
space with so many windows, corners, and stairways. Bethany Bristow's
aptly named "Insinutate" i(2005) is constructed of multiple site specific materials
including melted glass, feathers and corn syrup is placed inconspicuously on
a gallery window ledge in a hallway on the second floor. And, as we were leaving
the show I noticed again and remembered being stuck by on the first visit,
outside the gallery on a large ledge in front of a window, Bozidar Brazda's surprising
and frightening piece made out of a dummy lying down on the ledge and a parachute
lying nearby, blowing open and closing probably by means of a wind machine placed
nearby- this work suggested to me the breathless excitements- and severe risks-
of the artist who must jump into the unknown to achieve his or her discoveries-
and who, like all of us, must someday return to the ground beneath their feet after
their extravagant flights into the stratosphere of the imagination.
After this we headed downtown to our favorite restaurant the Orlin Cafe
on East 8th Street. And who walks by after a bit? Two poet friends, Mike
Scharf and Drew Gardner, We talked about the show (Drew decided
he did not want to read these notes before seeing ths show). We had
a chance to chat with Drew about movies, his workshop at the
Poetry Project and the fact that he is now working on putting together a CD
(hopefully to be heard soon on My Vocabulary) of my reading at the BPC with
Lee Anne Brown and Ange Mlinko and Drew's Poetics Orchestra. This
was indeed a serendipitous ending to our Sunday of Art- serendipity
which extended to quickly catching the Q home to Park Slope so
we could grab a quick bite and as quickly crash
into bed exhausted. Strangely, I dreamt
of a strikingly actual Paul Auster giving me advice about publishers!
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