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Poiesis
James at ursprache has a typically pithy post today on the nature of poetry. He writes, “It is often cited that the root of the word poetry comes from the Greek term poïesis meaning ‘to make.’ But make how? And make what? So much lies undisclosed in the concept of mere ‘making’.” I couldn’t resist commenting, then thought I should share the response here as passable material for rumination: I think the “making” has been defined, in “Symposium,” where Socrates recounts a conversation he had with his tutor, the seer Diotima.Read More
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A Taste of Róbert Gál’s Signs & Symptoms
I discovered Róbert Gál through the anthology New European Poets, edited by Wayne Miller and Kevin Prufer, and bought his Signs & Symptoms because of what I’d read there. I don’t know if Gál is, in fact, a poet; he is certainly an aphorist, but he comes at the practice, it seems to me, with a philosopher’s spirit, not a poet’s. I don’t know if I can be clear about that distinction, but let me give it a try.Read More
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More from Owen Barfield
Here’s another excerpt from Owen Barfield‘s Poetic Diction: A Study in Meaning. I’m quoting it in partial answer to a comment posted by Joel Jacobson in reply to my just previous post, asking what I meant by “technological rationalism,” which I had claimed was one of two powerful fundamentalisms at work in America today, the other being “religious unreason”.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. 
