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Stein and the Objectification of Language
On his excellent blog, Fluid/Exchange, Steve Halle has put up an intriguing post on Gertrude Stein‘s lecture “Poetry and Grammar.” I won’t rehash it here. But I will draw attention to one passage that is fraught. Halle is too good a writer to make it seem fraught, but it is, and its fraughtness says a lot, I think, about the influences (good and bad) that Stein has had on poetry various avant-garde movements. Here’s Halle’s statement: Stein begins the essay by exploring the writer’s relationship to words, and this is important because writing is made out of words.Read More
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Nothing Doing
Al Filreis has a new post with embedded audio on Cubist language. Wonderful! He uses two exemplary quotes: Stein: “Any one doing something and standing is one doing something and standing. Some one was doing something and was standing. / Any one doing something and standing is one doing something and standing. Any one doing something and standing is one who is standing and doing something. Some one was doing something and was standing.Read More
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Closed Histories
I’m too harried with work to write a thorough review of Sara Veglahn’s extraordinary chapbook Closed Histories, but I want to take a moment to recommend it. To the extent that comparisons are useful in describing a distinctive new voice, I would say that her work has similarities to writers as diverse as Karen Volkman, Yves Bonnefoy, Samuel Beckett, Henri Michaux, and the Gertrude Stein of Tender Buttons. Needless to say, I hope, these associations are subjective, and Ms. Veglahn herself might disavow them all! So I should let her speak for herself, if briefly: From the window, light.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. 
