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My Year in Books (2017)
This year’s list is longer than usual, in part because I created two literature courses for the Professional Creative Writing program I direct at D.U.’s University College, a process that entailed lots of reading.Read More
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A One-Question Survey…
Adam Kirsch had this to say about Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural performance: “[T]he poet’s place is not on the platform but in the crowd […], she should speak not for the people but to them.” This seems to me obscurity dressed up as profundity; the more I turn it over the less sense it makes.Read More
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Those Who Can’t Do…
I highly recommend a visit to Ron Silliman’s blog post today, in which you can savor his disordered thought process in all its glory. He starts off with a school-marmish sneer toward Curtis Faville for using parodize instead of the correct parody in the comments stream, while going on to note that there have been plenty of parodies of Elizabeth Alexander’s inaugural poem, “tho I don’t recall linking to any.” You see, in Silliman’s world, “tho” is acceptable but “parodize” is not, undoubtedly because “tho” was sanctified by his Objectivist hero George Oppen.Read More
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Oratory vs. Conversation
Thanks to Andrew Shields for his post dealing with Elizabeth Alexander and the question of the oratorical vs. what I would call the conversational style of reading aloud most poets use. No one programmatically teaches poets to read this way, I think, but the style is certainly entrenched. Only “performance poets” dissent from it—although Naropa preserves Ginsberg’s exalted hipster oratory in the supercharged person of Anne Waldman. Note also Andrew’s link to a thoughtful, humane post by Reb Livingston…. Here, by the way, is Alexander’s poem with the correct lineation.Read More
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Mexico Books 2008: Installment 4
Duende, by Tracy K. Smith. Tracy K. Smith’s first collection, The Body’s Question, but I’ll be tracking a copy down to spend some more time enjoying the modulations of her strong, subtle voice. It’s no surprise that this book won the 2006 James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets.Read More
Joseph Hutchison, Colorado Poet Laureate 2014-2019, has published 20 collections of poems and edited or co-edited three poetry anthologies. He currently directs two master’s-level programs for University College at the University of Denver: Professional Creative Writing and Arts & Culture Management. Joe lives with his wife, Melody Madonna, in the mountains southwest of Denver, Colorado, the city where he was born. 
