not point at all

The scientist [Robert Hooke] turns next to “a point commonly so called, that is, the mark of a full-stop, or period.” Whether printed or made with a pen, the tiny point, circle or dot of the period turns out to be disfigured, ragged, deformed. Under the lens, this microdot looks as though it’s been made with a burnt stick on an uneven floor.

—Brian Dillon, “What Pitiful Bungling Scribbles and Scrawls,” Affinities: On Art and Fascination (New York Review of Books, 2023)

chatter not matter

Language as communication interests me more than language as material.

meaning material

Words are material but of a different order from paint or from musical notes (neither of which carry meaning).

controlling interest

A poet whose inclination was to control the material and not to discover what was withheld from him in the material.

classically defined

‘Classical qualities, classical form’ are easy words to say. What exactly do they mean? They imply an idea of excellence; they imply also clearness, sobriety, the art of composition; they mean, finally, that reason, rather than imagination and sensibility, presides over the execution of the work, and that the writer dominates his material.

—Jules Lemaître, “Guy De Maupassant,” Literary Impressions (Kennikat Press, 1971)

two ways to get there

A poetry of method, a poetry of material.

staid style

That staid style that shows too much conscious control over the material.

priceless poetry

Poetry stands in resistance to this commercial culture. It is not about acquiring material wealth; instead, it’s about human insight, genuine human connectivity, and promotes mindfulness and awakening. In that way, poetry is priceless.

—Arthur Sze, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Interview with Arthur Sze by Kenji C. Liu, Jan 26, 2020.

inexhaustible

One thought of the poem as a mineshaft, where many have descended into its dim-lit reaches to do their work, each bringing to the surface a few tons of material, and yet the veins radiate in many directions, and go on for indeterminate distances.

words for the taking

Artists need materials. Musicians need instruments. Poet, please don’t complain when words are all about you, free for the taking.

material failure

There are things we believe or think we believe or want to believe which will not substantiate themselves in the concrete material of the poem.

—George Oppen, letter to John Taggart, The Selected Letters of George Oppen (Duke U. Press, 1990), edited by Rachel Blau DuPlessis

deep dark line

Her lines mattered like those of an etcher.

mark making

Stone, paper, pixels, air, mind…poems will try to fix upon anything

base matter

Inspiration remains hoped for, but so often art begins in the material of medium.

over exposed

Often the poem wears out its material before it exhausts its exposition.

overly contented

Too content with her trove of compelling content.

what matters

The words are ghosts; their meanings are matter.

down to words

Because it’s made of such common material (our words), poetry survives (and even thrives) in the most dire and desperate of circumstances.

shaker poem

Spare in design, elemental in material, and elegant in its function: a Shaker poem.

humble thing

Poet, be proud of that humble thing you have made from the poor material we call language.