Monthly Archives: November 2004

Josh: Ultimately, I too am looking for a “serious” poetry, though seriousness comes in many shapes and forms, quite a few of which aren’t apparently serious at all. But I have much more in common with a desire for rigorousness … Continue reading →

Dan Tessitore (whose earlier blog was short-lived but quite interesting) is back on the scene with A Hole in the Head. Welcome back! You should have posted an announcement on the old site for those of us who have been … Continue reading →

In the introduction to this volume, Lyn Hejinian makes clear that the alphabetical order of the anthology precludes us from giving her any credit for any “extraordinary resonances that exist between adjacent poems.” Too bad, because I’d like to give … Continue reading →

I’m beginning to think this is going to be a long haul. Prose poetry is a form (or lack of form) that fascinates me. But I can’t make sense of these. Maybe there’s a longer story being told and these … Continue reading →

If I were rating these poems on a scale that had “bewildered” towards the low end and “bewildered, but in a good way” near the top end, I’m not sure where I’d put this poem. There are some memorable and … Continue reading →

I’m not a Bernstein fan or a hater– but as I said regarding the last poem, I do admire this mode of poetry (the list of aphorisms/jokes/phrases) if the work is interesting enough. Bernstein tries too hard to be clever, … Continue reading →

I’m going to pick on Josh Corey some more because I always enjoy his weblog, which seems to be the nexus of conversations that are interesting and relevant to me. Josh writes: I’ve probably said this before, but: I think … Continue reading →

Josh, there are many ways to be serious about poetry (and work… and life). It seems a bit presumptuous to assume that because one uses humor, playfulness, or even– gasp!– irony that they are therefore not privy to real inspiration … Continue reading →

Where does this form come from? I don’t mean the game of 20 questions, of course, but the list poem of aphorisms/questions/observations. In the last Sentence magazine (about which I will be writing more later, as I was stunned by … Continue reading →

A poem written after a drawing from 1882. I hope that this was written on spec because it reads like an assignment. I’ve got no problem with poems about/based on/in reference to artistic works. I love “Musee des Beaux Arts” … Continue reading →

It’s perhaps instructive that just before I posted this entry I realized I’d neglected to put the title of the poem in the entry title. I’m not sure that it matters. It’s another good Ashbery poem like so many others. … Continue reading →

In case I didn’t get it, capitalizing only the first word in the title is a sign that this is meant to be one of those prose poem deals. And it is, kind of. But the lines are broken not … Continue reading →

I really like the second stanza… but it is driven by the explication of the first stanza. Unfortunately that stanza really is a lot of explication and not a lot of poem. Still, I have to give a point for … Continue reading →

This is just the kind of writing that drives me crazy when it is heralded by the Avant crowd. Three long sections of word association. Gleaming, glimmering word salad, like the fruit salad some people make for potlucks… it looks … Continue reading →

I have a cousin named William Alexander, but thankfully he didn’t write this poem. And I would have fallen asleep except I was reading this exercise in word association in a busy coffee shop. OK, that’s too harsh. There are … Continue reading →

Clever. Could have been a William Stafford parody until the farmer twists the neck of the chicken that tried to cross the road and “whose asshole his wife stuffed / with rosemary and a lemon wedge.” Incidentally, one of my … Continue reading →

My Best American Poetry 2004 reading is going to go like this: I’ll comment here about poems as I read them I won’t be reading the notes from or about the authors the first time around I’m purposefully avoiding any … Continue reading →