Bishop and Graham

The first chapter in region of unlikelness by Thomas Gardner he builds a really good case for considering Bishop as a precursor to Graham. The way that she builds out the "frame of reference", shows it to you, and then says, "yes, very well, but it simply will not do!" is discussed within an overall frame of the "sceptic". It also reminds me of a book I read recently on "the resitance of poetry" where the author discusses how we read poetry to hear the poet thinking, the flow of thought and feeling. After all those years of reading critical theory, here we are again, at the edge of reason.

Erosion

Picked up Jorie Graham's Erosion just to see if the theories of Gardner were evident from the early collections. What it showed me, I think, is that Graham has had a clear gift for the oblique image from the start. Will rest up now for the rest of the evening and finish this collection. I'm lucky to pretty much have all her work sitting on the floor beside me, so hey, when I eventually get around to typing up the Brenda Shaugnessy piece, I might develop a small one on Jorie. I'm sure she will only be delighted at the prospect ! ;)

Erosion

Picked up Jorie Graham's Erosion just to see if the theories of Gardner were evident from the early collections. What it showed me, I think, is that Graham has had a clear gift for the oblique image from the start. Will rest up now for the rest of the evening and finish this collection. I'm lucky to pretty much have all her work sitting on the floor beside me, so hey, when I eventually get around to typing up the Brenda Shaugnessy piece, I might develop a small one on Jorie. I'm sure she will only be delighted at the prospect ! ;)

Regions of Unlikeness

I picked up Regions of Unlikeness, Explaining Contemporary Poetry ,by Thomas Gardner recently, and the follow up series of essays he edited, Jorie Graham Essays on the Poetry, and I have to say from the opening 20 pages, I like this a lot. in Region of Unlikeness (which I shall now refer to rather knowlingly as ROU) looks back to the modenists such as Stevens to see how the project of expression within language, and through language, happens in full knowledge of its defeat, and that this is yet still in search of a poetic that retains a concern with remaining human, of a strategy of accepting the limit, and working within it. Quoting the Robert Hass lines from Human Wishes "A man thinks "liliacs against white houses"... from Spring Drawing Gardner shows us the mind recovering it's-self within that pause. It was originally Ciaran O'Driscoll that drew my attention to this poem, and these lines, and he knew that something important was going on here. I can only say i look forward to the rest of this journey. Its very timely, in that I have been writing a poem called "Sunday Morning Caesura" for about a year and a half now, and the concerns are central to me. Enough. Enough.

Legitamite Dangers: Half Way Through

Half way through this book and even poets that I like are not well represented here. More poems per poet are required. More later.

Legitimate Dancers

Picked up the new anthology Legitimate Dancers from Sarabande. Firstly, what a beautiful production and on a first reading of the contents page, a pretty focused rollcall of Poets. I've read about a third of the poets on the list and liked many of them, so looking foward to this. Also half way through Henri Cole's "Visible Man", and how unfashionable his aesthetic is, and how very very good many of these poems are. I had previously read "Middle Earth" and it too was good, but Visible Man has a cold heat. As per usual I have too much work to do to linger too long on poetry these days, but having said that, no one dies wishing the spent one more day in the office!

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