Friday, February 27, 2009
Ernest Fenollosa
Thus in all poetry a word is like a sun, with its corona and chromosphere; words crowd upon words, and enwrap each other in their luminous envelopes until sentences become clear, continuous light-bands.
My list of 20 poetry books that made me first fall in love with poetry
In one of Ron Silliman's recent links updates there was a posting for the above. Since looking at that I have found myself mentally compiling a list. Here it is (in no order, although the order tends to be fairly close to the order in which I read them, the first one I was 16 or 17):
-Dante "Inferno"
-Jim Carroll "Fear of Dreaming"
-Allen Ginsberg "Howl"
-Allen Ginsberg "Kaddish"
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti "A Coney Island of the Mind"
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti "A Far Rockaway of the Heart"
-Arthur Rimbaud "Illuminations"
-Arthur Rimbaud "A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat"
-Mina Loy "The Lost Lunar Baedeker"
-"Complete Poems of Hart Crane"
-Bob Kaufman "Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness"
-Gregory Corso "Long Live Man"
-"Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas"
-Federico Garcia Lorca "Poet in New York"
-Guillaume Apollinaire "Alcools"
-Andre Breton "Earthlight"
-"Selected Poems of Rene Char"
-"Selected Poems of Pierre Reverdy"
-"Collected Poems of Stephane Mallarme"
- Octavio Paz "Draft of Shadows"
I feel cheated. There are at least ten more books I can think of right off the top of my head that should be on here. The fact is that whenever I read a "miracle in words" I fall in love with poetry again.
-Dante "Inferno"
-Jim Carroll "Fear of Dreaming"
-Allen Ginsberg "Howl"
-Allen Ginsberg "Kaddish"
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti "A Coney Island of the Mind"
-Lawrence Ferlinghetti "A Far Rockaway of the Heart"
-Arthur Rimbaud "Illuminations"
-Arthur Rimbaud "A Season in Hell and The Drunken Boat"
-Mina Loy "The Lost Lunar Baedeker"
-"Complete Poems of Hart Crane"
-Bob Kaufman "Solitudes Crowded with Loneliness"
-Gregory Corso "Long Live Man"
-"Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas"
-Federico Garcia Lorca "Poet in New York"
-Guillaume Apollinaire "Alcools"
-Andre Breton "Earthlight"
-"Selected Poems of Rene Char"
-"Selected Poems of Pierre Reverdy"
-"Collected Poems of Stephane Mallarme"
- Octavio Paz "Draft of Shadows"
I feel cheated. There are at least ten more books I can think of right off the top of my head that should be on here. The fact is that whenever I read a "miracle in words" I fall in love with poetry again.
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Samuel Vasquez
To write poetry is to begin beyond all knowledge. One paints to see, one writes to hear. "One paints to know what painting is", one writes poetry to know what poetry is. The storyteller writes about what he knows, the poet writes to know. Poetry is the most extreme experience of language, and the requirement of maximum yield from the word takes place at the frontier where there is a tear in language itself.
Samuel Vasquez
Imagination is not an avoidance of reality. Imagination is a responsible (and committed) re-entry into reality, and in that re-entry the poet adds his poem to pre-existing reality making the poem a reality in itself.
Angel Crespo aphorisms
Poetry is like a needle in a haystack. When the poet finally finds it, he hides it again among the chaff.
Poetry is like a hunter who takes his hawk up to the mountain and then hunts it.
Poetry is like a field sown with wheat. The master comes and asks, "Who's the swine that got rid of the locusts?"
The poet is like a hunter who has a bow and rifle: he sends arrows into the air and then tries to shoot them down.
When the poet finds the penny, he feels poorer than when he was looking for it.
Imaginations doesn't invent images, but harmonizes them with the initial nothingness of the poem.
If you can call a butterfly a flying flower, can you call a flower a stationary butterfly? No. Poetry is not a roundtrip ticket.
Poetry is like a hunter who takes his hawk up to the mountain and then hunts it.
Poetry is like a field sown with wheat. The master comes and asks, "Who's the swine that got rid of the locusts?"
The poet is like a hunter who has a bow and rifle: he sends arrows into the air and then tries to shoot them down.
When the poet finds the penny, he feels poorer than when he was looking for it.
Imaginations doesn't invent images, but harmonizes them with the initial nothingness of the poem.
If you can call a butterfly a flying flower, can you call a flower a stationary butterfly? No. Poetry is not a roundtrip ticket.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
New links
It has been quite awhile since I have updated my links. Several sites to add:
New European Poets blog http://neweuropeanpoets.blogspot.com/
Free Library Podcast (podcasts of events at the Philadelphia library, a recent Breytenbach lecture available) http://libwww.library.phila.gov/podcast/
11th century Japanese poetry manuscripts http://bunka.nii.ac.jp/SearchDetail.do?heritageId=87216
Muse India (wonderful online periodical devoted to Indian literature, with a strong emphasis on poetry. Special sections on poetry in Marathi, Indian English, Tamil, Gujarati, Manipuri and more) http://www.museindia.com/pissue.asp
Bookworm (Terrific program, over 900 shows archived including the past few years available as mp3 downloads. Eshleman, Ashbery, Coral Bracho have been a few of the guests) http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw
UniVerse: A United Nations of Poetry http://www.universeofpoetry.org/
Douglas Messerli's PIP (Project for Innovative Poetry) Blog started late in 2008 has the biographies, selected bibliography and in many cases several poems by 164 poets from around the world thus far http://pippoetry.blogspot.com/
New European Poets blog http://neweuropeanpoets.blogspot.com/
Free Library Podcast (podcasts of events at the Philadelphia library, a recent Breytenbach lecture available) http://libwww.library.phila.gov/podcast/
11th century Japanese poetry manuscripts http://bunka.nii.ac.jp/SearchDetail.do?heritageId=87216
Muse India (wonderful online periodical devoted to Indian literature, with a strong emphasis on poetry. Special sections on poetry in Marathi, Indian English, Tamil, Gujarati, Manipuri and more) http://www.museindia.com/pissue.asp
Bookworm (Terrific program, over 900 shows archived including the past few years available as mp3 downloads. Eshleman, Ashbery, Coral Bracho have been a few of the guests) http://www.kcrw.com/etc/programs/bw
UniVerse: A United Nations of Poetry http://www.universeofpoetry.org/
Douglas Messerli's PIP (Project for Innovative Poetry) Blog started late in 2008 has the biographies, selected bibliography and in many cases several poems by 164 poets from around the world thus far http://pippoetry.blogspot.com/
Sunday, February 15, 2009
I did this I did that in Chicago
Wednesday:
-Arrive at Midway around noon
-Check in to the Congress Plaza and then register
-Eat lunch at the Russian Tea Service & walk around in the rain
-Go to a reading sponsored by Action Books, Circumference, Drunken Boat, Jubilat, A Public Space & Words Without Borders. Saw Don Mee Choi & Kim Hyseoon, Daniel Borzutsky (read translations he is currently working on), Jennifer Scappettone (read translations of Amelia Rosselli), Annie Finch, Thom Ward, Suzanne Buffam, Srikanth Reddy, Arda Collins, Noah Eli Gordon, Ellen Dore Watson & Matthew Zapruder (read translations of Eugen Jebeleanu).
-Go to Myopic Books. Easily one of the finest poetry selections I have ever seen in a used bookstore, plus the hours are perfect for insomniacs (open until 130 am every night). I leave with Nina Cassian's Take My Word for It & Eric Basso's Accidental Monsters.
Thursday:
-First panel on aphorism. Fascinated by the translations of four Spanish aphorists translated by Steven Stewart.
-Second panel a reading from the collaborative project 7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book. Readings by Dean Young, Christopher Merrill & Marvin Bell.
-Bought the only issue of Circumference I was missing for five dollars!
-Third panel a discussion of oracular poetry. Intrigued particularly by Patricia Spears Jones comments on druidic and Irish poetic traditions.
-Fourth panel on Multiformalism: Postmodern Poetics of Form. Hank Lazer. Susan Schultz, K. Silem Mohammad & Annie Finch. Easily the most combative event.
-Fifth panel a tribute to Albert Goldbarth. Goldbarth read a piece right at the end, really great.
-Sixth panel on the anthology American Hybrid. Fascinating talks by all involved but Cole Swensen and Forest Gander's remarks really stood out for me.
-Eat italian food & fall asleep early.
Friday:
-Go to the bookfair where at a huge discount I purchase David Huerta's Before Saying Any of the Great Words, Affonso Romano De Sant Anna's A Man and His Shadow, Astrid Cabral's Cage. Tomaz Salamun's There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair, With Everything We've Got: A Personal Anthology of Yiddish Poetry, Nicanor Parra's After-Dinner Declarations, Jordan Scott's blert, K. Silem Mohammad's Breathalyzer, Etel Adnan's Seasons, Dolores Dorantes sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and SEPTEMBRE, Valentina Saracini's Dreaming Escape, Samih Al-Qasim's Sadder Than Water, and a sampler of five Slovenian poets published by Ugly Duckling. The discounts on all of the books were so significant that all of these cost about one hundred dollars.
- Go to the Art Institute for a reading by Tomaz Salamun. Outstanding.
-Return to AWP for my first panel of the day. A reading from Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves.
-The next panel was really amazing. Tranlastions of works from Chile, Cuba and Mexico. The wonderful Mexican poet Laura Solozano kicked off the reading.
-Last panel of the day was a tribute celebrating Thomas James. Tracy Smith gave a fantastic presentation.
-At nine that night the Mandorla reading. Forest Gander read his translations of Bracho, Pura Lopez-Colome and a really great excerpt from an Uruguyan author whose name has unfortunately slipped my mind. Kent Johnson gave a great reading as well.
Saturday:
-The first panel of the day turned out well despite John Yau's absence. A discussion of ekphrastic poetry, Janee J. Baugher and Cole Swensen gave great presentations.
-The second panel a discussion on the difference between prose poetry & flash fiction. Justin Courter, author of one of the best novels I read the past year Skunk: A Love Story, had one of the funniest presentations.
-Third panel highlights were by far seeing John Bradley and George Kalamaras. They talked about the work of Gene Frumkin and Bert Meyers.
-The fourth panel I was mesmerized by Cass Dalglish's talk on cuneiform, especially her comments on Enheduanna who was the first poet in history to claim authorship of a text.
-The fifth panel consisted of more translators (Helene Cardona, Willis Barnstone, Martha Collins and Dennis Maloney). Maloney's reading of his translations of Japanese hermit Zen poets was really great.
-The last event of the day as a Tomaz Salamun reading. Although he read a few of the same pieces he'd read the day before at the Art Institute it was wonderful seeing him again.
Today:
- The Edvard Munch exhibit at the Art Institute which opened yesterday. Exceeded my expectations. As well as having an impressive number of his works I was finally able to see a few of my favorite artists-James Ensor and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
-Two issues of Banipal waiting for me when I arrived home.
-Arrive at Midway around noon
-Check in to the Congress Plaza and then register
-Eat lunch at the Russian Tea Service & walk around in the rain
-Go to a reading sponsored by Action Books, Circumference, Drunken Boat, Jubilat, A Public Space & Words Without Borders. Saw Don Mee Choi & Kim Hyseoon, Daniel Borzutsky (read translations he is currently working on), Jennifer Scappettone (read translations of Amelia Rosselli), Annie Finch, Thom Ward, Suzanne Buffam, Srikanth Reddy, Arda Collins, Noah Eli Gordon, Ellen Dore Watson & Matthew Zapruder (read translations of Eugen Jebeleanu).
-Go to Myopic Books. Easily one of the finest poetry selections I have ever seen in a used bookstore, plus the hours are perfect for insomniacs (open until 130 am every night). I leave with Nina Cassian's Take My Word for It & Eric Basso's Accidental Monsters.
Thursday:
-First panel on aphorism. Fascinated by the translations of four Spanish aphorists translated by Steven Stewart.
-Second panel a reading from the collaborative project 7 Poets, 4 Days, 1 Book. Readings by Dean Young, Christopher Merrill & Marvin Bell.
-Bought the only issue of Circumference I was missing for five dollars!
-Third panel a discussion of oracular poetry. Intrigued particularly by Patricia Spears Jones comments on druidic and Irish poetic traditions.
-Fourth panel on Multiformalism: Postmodern Poetics of Form. Hank Lazer. Susan Schultz, K. Silem Mohammad & Annie Finch. Easily the most combative event.
-Fifth panel a tribute to Albert Goldbarth. Goldbarth read a piece right at the end, really great.
-Sixth panel on the anthology American Hybrid. Fascinating talks by all involved but Cole Swensen and Forest Gander's remarks really stood out for me.
-Eat italian food & fall asleep early.
Friday:
-Go to the bookfair where at a huge discount I purchase David Huerta's Before Saying Any of the Great Words, Affonso Romano De Sant Anna's A Man and His Shadow, Astrid Cabral's Cage. Tomaz Salamun's There's the Hand and There's the Arid Chair, With Everything We've Got: A Personal Anthology of Yiddish Poetry, Nicanor Parra's After-Dinner Declarations, Jordan Scott's blert, K. Silem Mohammad's Breathalyzer, Etel Adnan's Seasons, Dolores Dorantes sexoPUROsexoVELOZ and SEPTEMBRE, Valentina Saracini's Dreaming Escape, Samih Al-Qasim's Sadder Than Water, and a sampler of five Slovenian poets published by Ugly Duckling. The discounts on all of the books were so significant that all of these cost about one hundred dollars.
- Go to the Art Institute for a reading by Tomaz Salamun. Outstanding.
-Return to AWP for my first panel of the day. A reading from Yellow as Turmeric, Fragrant as Cloves.
-The next panel was really amazing. Tranlastions of works from Chile, Cuba and Mexico. The wonderful Mexican poet Laura Solozano kicked off the reading.
-Last panel of the day was a tribute celebrating Thomas James. Tracy Smith gave a fantastic presentation.
-At nine that night the Mandorla reading. Forest Gander read his translations of Bracho, Pura Lopez-Colome and a really great excerpt from an Uruguyan author whose name has unfortunately slipped my mind. Kent Johnson gave a great reading as well.
Saturday:
-The first panel of the day turned out well despite John Yau's absence. A discussion of ekphrastic poetry, Janee J. Baugher and Cole Swensen gave great presentations.
-The second panel a discussion on the difference between prose poetry & flash fiction. Justin Courter, author of one of the best novels I read the past year Skunk: A Love Story, had one of the funniest presentations.
-Third panel highlights were by far seeing John Bradley and George Kalamaras. They talked about the work of Gene Frumkin and Bert Meyers.
-The fourth panel I was mesmerized by Cass Dalglish's talk on cuneiform, especially her comments on Enheduanna who was the first poet in history to claim authorship of a text.
-The fifth panel consisted of more translators (Helene Cardona, Willis Barnstone, Martha Collins and Dennis Maloney). Maloney's reading of his translations of Japanese hermit Zen poets was really great.
-The last event of the day as a Tomaz Salamun reading. Although he read a few of the same pieces he'd read the day before at the Art Institute it was wonderful seeing him again.
Today:
- The Edvard Munch exhibit at the Art Institute which opened yesterday. Exceeded my expectations. As well as having an impressive number of his works I was finally able to see a few of my favorite artists-James Ensor and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
-Two issues of Banipal waiting for me when I arrived home.
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