ursprache
sometimes the words escape me
1.17.2021
holus-bolus
The poem that comes holus-bolus while being sequentially laid out in lines.
Labels:
all at once,
aspiration,
composition,
holus-bolus,
lines,
sequential
1.16.2021
ready for everything
He had the strong and sinewy look of the determined and patient walker, who is always going off, his long legs moving quietly and very regularly, his head straight, his beautiful eyes fixed on the distance, and his face filled with a look of steady defiance, an air of expectation—ready for everything, without anger, without fear.
—Ernest Dalahaye, on Arthur Rimbaud, 1925, Beneath My Feet: Writers on Walking (Notting Hill Editions, 2018)
—Ernest Dalahaye, on Arthur Rimbaud, 1925, Beneath My Feet: Writers on Walking (Notting Hill Editions, 2018)
Labels:
arthur rimbaud,
defiance,
distance,
ernest dalahaye,
walking
1.15.2021
bad architecture
The poem stood like bad architecture filling the space of the page.
Labels:
architecture,
bad poem,
page,
space
1.14.2021
1.13.2021
write this with me
To write a poem that invites the reader into its composition.
Labels:
composition,
inside,
invite,
reader,
writer
1.11.2021
useful list of errors
The erratum slip made for a convenient bookmark.
Labels:
bookmark,
convenient,
erratum,
errors,
publishing,
slip,
typos
1.10.2021
horrors of verse
Here Thomas Hardy informs us the trees from where the birds flew were on his right because he needed to rime with 'night'...
And the town-shine in the distance
did but baffle here the sight,
And then a voice flew forward:
“Dear, is’t you? I fear the night!”
And the herons flapped to norward
In the firs upon my right.
[Thomas Hardy's "On a Heath"]
And the town-shine in the distance
did but baffle here the sight,
And then a voice flew forward:
“Dear, is’t you? I fear the night!”
And the herons flapped to norward
In the firs upon my right.
[Thomas Hardy's "On a Heath"]
1.08.2021
1.07.2021
poet at the wheel
Never trust a poet who can drive. Never trust a poet at the wheel. If he can drive, distrust the poems.
—Martin Amis, The Information
[Encountered this quote in Garner’s Quotations]
—Martin Amis, The Information
[Encountered this quote in Garner’s Quotations]
Labels:
driving,
lives of the poets,
martin amis,
trust,
wheel
1.06.2021
little enlarged
Poets are so precious and proprietary about their litmag publications. They never ask how many people really read it.
Labels:
litmag,
little magazine,
poetry publishing,
precious,
proprietary,
readers
1.05.2021
practical plus
To poets prose seems much too practical and potentially profitable.
Labels:
poetry v. prose,
practical,
profitable
1.03.2021
but what about
Remember, there is always a counter to whatever smart thing you can say about poetry.
1.01.2021
12.31.2020
thought for the new year
There is a lot of nasty stuff in life which comes breaking up our ecstasy, our inheritance. People should read more poetry and dream their dreams.
—Muriel Spark, A Good Comb: The Sayings of Muriel Spark (New Directions, 2020), edited by Penelope Jardine
—Muriel Spark, A Good Comb: The Sayings of Muriel Spark (New Directions, 2020), edited by Penelope Jardine
Labels:
ecstasy,
life,
muriel spark,
reading poetry
12.30.2020
cosmic index
Just reading the book’s index delighted me with its far-flung references.
Labels:
erudition,
index,
references,
wide reading
12.28.2020
12.27.2020
critical concern
The critic worried that after his take-down of the Apollonian poet he might be smitten with donkey ears.
Labels:
apollonian,
critic,
donkey,
ears,
midas,
reputation,
revenge
12.26.2020
tepid praise
I’m mildly interested in that kind of poetry, but not wildly.
Labels:
critical attention,
interest,
mild,
schools of poetry,
taste,
wild
12.25.2020
12.21.2020
teaching poets
You can be too good a teacher-poet: One begins being thought of as a better teacher but a lesser poet.
Labels:
creative writing program,
poet,
regard,
reputation,
teacher
12.20.2020
should end well
The main thing about a story is that it should end well, and perhaps it is not too much to say that a story’s ending casts its voice, color, tone and shade over the whole work.
—Muriel Spark, The Informed Air (New Directions, reprint 2018)
—Muriel Spark, The Informed Air (New Directions, reprint 2018)
12.18.2020
blindspot words
Words one has a blindspot for; for example, in my case: perspicuity.
Labels:
blindspot,
perspicuity,
words
12.16.2020
12.14.2020
polyhedron box
The ‘box’ we call poetry is a polyhedron still building out new spaces.
Labels:
box,
genre,
poetry is,
polyhedron,
space
12.13.2020
bear with me
I think the poet decided to write a very long poem to test who among his readers were beyond discouragement.
12.11.2020
unentitled
Like any first words on the page, a title is a place to get started. The title shouldn't be considered sacred like a totem...it can be discarded at the whim of whatever words follow.
Labels:
composition,
start,
title
12.10.2020
belongs neither
For [Luce] Irigaray, a philosophy that is also a wisdom of love requires a speech which is not ‘authoritarian’ or ‘pedagogical’. Instead, it should have as its aim the production of a ‘sharing’ between the speaker and the listener. When this occurs: ‘between the two something exists that belongs neither to the one nor to the other, nor moreover to any word. And this something must, in part, remain indeterminate’.
—Ben Grant, The Aphorism and Other Short Forms (Routledge, 2016) [quoted sections above come from Luce Irigaray’s The Way of Love (London and New York Continuum, 2002), translation by Heidi Bostic and Stephen Pluhà cek.]
—Ben Grant, The Aphorism and Other Short Forms (Routledge, 2016) [quoted sections above come from Luce Irigaray’s The Way of Love (London and New York Continuum, 2002), translation by Heidi Bostic and Stephen Pluhà cek.]
Labels:
ben grant,
indeterminate,
love,
luce irigaray,
philosophy,
speech,
wisdom
12.09.2020
thus spoken
Specifics accrue to the speaker's authority.
Labels:
authority,
particulars,
speaker,
specific
12.07.2020
12.05.2020
12.04.2020
pooh pooh who are you
She was dismissive of Frost’s poetry…ha, ha (last laugh?).
[Thinking of Lisa Jarnot]
[Thinking of Lisa Jarnot]
Labels:
dismiss,
lisa jarnot,
prejudices,
robert frost,
schools
12.03.2020
through poetry
Poetry, for me, has been a slow education. In the seductiveness of patterned sound. In sensory imagery as a relatively direct mode of thought. In the cryptic encoding and decoding of experience. Ultimately in the exhilarating and unexpected transmission of thought, fact, and feeling that are not only made possible through poetry, but are irrepressible in it.
—Roo Borson, Counterclaims: Poets and Poetries, Talking Back (Dalkey Archive Press, 2020)
—Roo Borson, Counterclaims: Poets and Poetries, Talking Back (Dalkey Archive Press, 2020)
Labels:
experience,
imagery,
pattern,
roo borson,
sound,
what's poetry for
12.02.2020
12.01.2020
it's all there
He reached a point where it was enough to compose the poem in his mind—no need to write it down.
11.29.2020
11.27.2020
11.26.2020
11.25.2020
its roots in language
The ontology of poetry is inextricably rooted in language itself.
Labels:
language,
ontology,
philosophy,
root
11.24.2020
didn't know that
Something I just learned today: The ‘literary piano’ was an early nickname for the typewriter.
[Later I heard the term 'alphabet piano' which I like even better.]
[Later I heard the term 'alphabet piano' which I like even better.]
Labels:
literary piano,
nickname,
trivia,
typewriter
11.23.2020
prose resolve
The prose we write about poems must try not to shrivel before the poems we write.
—Frank Bidart, Counterclaims: Poets and Poetries, Talking Back (Dalkey Archive Press, 2020), edited by H. L. Hix.
—Frank Bidart, Counterclaims: Poets and Poetries, Talking Back (Dalkey Archive Press, 2020), edited by H. L. Hix.
Labels:
frank bidart,
poetry v. prose,
prose,
shrivel
11.20.2020
poem evident
A poem is evidence of human presence…no less than a fossilized footprint on a riverbank from prehistoric times.
11.19.2020
far fort
A poet stationed at the outpost of a college town otherwise surrounded by hostiles.
Labels:
college town,
hostile,
lives of the poets,
outpost
11.18.2020
so long longhand
Will I ever again return to writing longhand, and the pleasure of seeing the letters unfold slowly into words across the page. Nothing written can be taken back without crossing-out.
Labels:
composition,
cross-out,
handwriting,
longhand,
pen and paper
11.17.2020
advantage poet
Philosophers and poets are both familiar with the power of the aphorism. Poets have an advantage because they’re not worried about justifying their assertions.
Labels:
aphorism,
justify,
philosophy,
poetry v. philosophy
11.15.2020
older and shorter
Variation on Pascal: If I was older I’d have written you a shorter poem.
Labels:
age,
blaise pascal,
brevity,
length,
shorter
11.14.2020
no echoes
Slowly from nice neat letters;
doing things well
is more important than doing them.
--
Wake up singers!
Time for the echoes to end
and the voices to begin.
--
Quarreler, boxer
fight it out with the wind.
It’s not the fundamental I
that the poet is searching for
but the essential you.
—Antonio Machado, There is No Road (White Pine Press, 2003), Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney translators.
doing things well
is more important than doing them.
--
Wake up singers!
Time for the echoes to end
and the voices to begin.
--
Quarreler, boxer
fight it out with the wind.
It’s not the fundamental I
that the poet is searching for
but the essential you.
—Antonio Machado, There is No Road (White Pine Press, 2003), Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney translators.
11.13.2020
free from mirrors
In the spare and luminous language of Machado, we find extraordinary sensitivity to place and landscape, as well as a genuine feeling for local folklore and for song as a living tradition from which to learn. His poetry is not the poetry of closed rooms but that of the open air. Many of his poem were written as the result of long walks through towns and hillsides. He often entered the inner world by first penetrating the outer world of landscapes and objects. “It is,” Machado said, “in the solitude of the countryside that a man ceases to live with mirrors.”
From the preface by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney to There is No Road (White Pine Press, 2003) by Antonio Machado.
From the preface by Mary G. Berg and Dennis Maloney to There is No Road (White Pine Press, 2003) by Antonio Machado.
Labels:
antonio machado,
countryside,
landscape,
mirrors,
rooms,
song,
walking
11.12.2020
11.11.2020
11.10.2020
dies in order to rise
In a certain sense the act of writing dies in print, then awaits resurrection by audience reaction.
Labels:
attention,
audience,
composition,
death,
printing,
resurrection,
text
11.08.2020
dream imagination
One value of dreams is that they build confidence in the power of our imaginations.
Labels:
confidence,
dream,
imagination
11.07.2020
escaped pen
Writing in bed: Too much scrabbling about the bedclothes searching for my pen.
Labels:
bed,
bedclothes,
pen,
scrabble
11.06.2020
close but not long
For a poet, all reading is close reading—which may explain why some of them have such difficulty getting through novels.
—Peter Robinson, Spirit of the Stair: Selected Aphorisms (Shearsman Books Ltd., 2009)
—Peter Robinson, Spirit of the Stair: Selected Aphorisms (Shearsman Books Ltd., 2009)
Labels:
close reading,
novel,
peter robinson,
reading
11.03.2020
apology for political poetry
Someone will always be making apologies for political poetry.
Labels:
apology,
political,
political poetry
11.02.2020
drop zone
A poet doesn’t sit down to write so much as s/he must parachute over unknown territory.
Labels:
parachute,
sit,
unknown,
writing practice
10.31.2020
10.29.2020
let me tell you
Gamblers will let slip news of their recent winnings while being stoic and tight-lipped as regards to their long losing streaks, and it’s the same with writers and their acceptances against the larger accumulation of rejection slips.
Labels:
acceptance,
gamblers,
losing streaks,
news,
publication,
rejection,
winnings
10.28.2020
posed poiesis
In Stevens’ poems all the important questions about poetry are posed.
Labels:
poetry is,
poiesis,
posed,
wallace stevens
10.26.2020
etch in light
There is no way you can not have a poetics
no matter what you do: plumber, baker, teacher
you do it in the consciousness of making
or not making yr world
you have a poetics: you step into the world
like a suit of readymade clothes
or you etch in light
your firmament spills into the shape of your room
the shape of the poem, of yr body, of yr loves
—Diane di Prima, from "Rant"
no matter what you do: plumber, baker, teacher
you do it in the consciousness of making
or not making yr world
you have a poetics: you step into the world
like a suit of readymade clothes
or you etch in light
your firmament spills into the shape of your room
the shape of the poem, of yr body, of yr loves
—Diane di Prima, from "Rant"
Labels:
clothes,
diane di prima,
making,
obituary,
occupation,
poetics,
shape,
step
10.25.2020
naming rights
With his writing and publishing not going well, he hatched a scheme to begin copyrighting the works of Anonymous as his own.
Labels:
anonymous,
block,
copyright,
publishing,
scheme
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