Outside and Inside the Poetic Experience

10 Comments

  1. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison January 7, 2009 at 10:19 pm .

    Sorry to perplex you, Bob! Yes, it’s part of an ongoing conversation about the place of theory. Some of my argument with post-avant (or whatever you want to call it) writing—I’d cite Silliman, Hejinian and their circle as examples—is that it exists as an illustration of their theoretical stance toward language, meaning, "relevance," etc. You can find a bunch of these related posts <A HREF="http:/

  2. Bob Kiing
    Bob Kiing January 7, 2009 at 9:24 pm .

    Joe—<BR/>I really need help in understanding your “Outside and Inside the Poetic Experience.” <BR/>Maybe it’s part of an on-going rumination, but I didn’t understand the relevance of your “core” question: Why would any poet want to begin with theory?” Is it because the theory passage you quote doesn’t seem like a good place to begin for a poet? That’s probably true although of course it wasn’t

  3. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison January 7, 2009 at 4:17 pm .

    Yeah, Joel—even the Pope cites sources when he issues his whatever-ya-callem….

  4. jejacobson
    jejacobson January 7, 2009 at 4:58 am .

    Nope, no critic for me. I’m fascinated by all these theories bouncing around, and understanding these theories expands my poetic universe. But, over time, theories come and go, but people and the human experience remain (up to this point anyways!). So I completely agree that starting with theory to describe rather than an experience to embody can result in weaker poetry. I’ll draft a blog about

  5. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison January 7, 2009 at 12:45 am .

    Joel, I think you <I>do</I> have to judge "what is or isn’t ‘poetry’"—not for anyone else but yourself, of course. There’s no need to impose your views on others, but as an aspiring poet you need to develop a clear sense of what poetry is <I>for you</I>. Hence your confusion. Unless you want to become a critic, you’re under no obligation to be "poetically correct."

  6. jejacobson
    jejacobson January 6, 2009 at 5:39 pm .

    The best example I can give is the visual poetry movement as presented in the November(or October?) issue of Poetry. If we look at poetry and the universal experience, I didn’t have much experience pouring over those pieces. Maybe someone could justify that these are poems because of visual poetry theory (of which I am totally ignorant and uneducated). I think they are excellent pieces of visual

  7. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison January 6, 2009 at 12:05 am .

    Joel, do you think theory <I>can</I> "justify" a poem? It might explain or contextualize, but justify? Maybe you can give an example….

  8. Joseph Hutchison
    Joseph Hutchison January 5, 2009 at 8:05 pm .

    Howdy, Anon—<BR/><BR/>Surely you’re not saying that poets (sans quotation marks) never commit suicide…?<BR/><BR/>I guess "some of them" is my answer to that….<BR/><BR/>I’ve read that physicians, specifically white male ones, constitute the profession with the highest rate of self-murder….

  9. jejacobson
    jejacobson January 5, 2009 at 7:47 pm .

    This may be reiterating sentiments from some of your earlier posts, but sometimes I think theory justifies the poem rather than the poetry justifying the poem. I’m not sure "poetry" is the best word, but it seems to encompass what I’m getting at.

  10. Anonymous
    Anonymous January 5, 2009 at 7:16 pm .

    because they want! they want "fame and fortune" and thirst fior the "perfect" poem… <BR/><BR/>no wonder so many "poets" commit suicide<BR/><BR/> some of them are The Walking/Writing Dead.

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