9.29.2012

poetry doesn't need you

Poetry doesn’t need you to coax out its meanings or to tease out its
     strategies or to unpack its bags.

[…]

Poetry doesn’t need you to vibrate or widen your mindscope or
     suckle your cowsack or snuff up your hornblow or sweat out
     your insides or dredge up your backwash or kick in your
     facecloth or chisel your eyeteeth or sink into quicksand.

—Ken Cormier, two sections from “Poetry Doesn’t Need You,” The Tragedy in My Neighborhood (Dead Academics Press, 2011)

2 comments:

Conrad DiDiodato said...

Love the name of that press! I think I'll order Cormier's book

JforJames said...

Ken Cormier's book has a number of very interesting prose pieces in it, as well. He's got a very wry sensibility and is a good performer of his work. He's currently working on short sound files recorded while driving that he's strung together.