Okay. Drop by this post on the Poetry Foundation’s blog Harriet, if you feel like a good laugh. It calls a new “translation” by Derek Beaulieu “not simply conceptual writing, for sure, but it’s also not a return to old-skool [sic] concrete practices, as it shies away from the immediacy of the image and toward more self-reflexive procedures.” Now, here is a sample page from Beaulieu’s “translation”:
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| From Local Colours by Derek Beaulieu |
This stunning bit of artistic innovation was created, according to (presumably) Beaulieu’s own project note, by removing all of the text in Paul Auster‘s novella Ghosts “except for the names of colours”; these names Beaulieu then rendered as swatches and positioned where their corresponding words appear on Auster’s original pages.
Whatever we think of Beaulieu’s effort (I think very little of it), we have to wonder why this received notice by Harriet. We have to wonder what sort of mind could view this project and pretend that it has anything to do with “old-skool” concrete practices or that it shies toward anything. (One can only shy from, of course.) And “self-reflexive” procedures? Well, self-indulgent, maybe.
What’s truly hilarious is that this commentator can fashionably misspell “school” and toss out a fashionable term like “conceptual writing,” but is unfashionably unfamiliar with British spelling habits: “[A]t least one correction is necessary—’color’ doesn’t have a ‘u’ in it.” Someone at Harriet should let him or her know that this spelling is common in Beaulieu’s Canada.
The real question, though, is whether the folks at Harriet know how to spell “pretentious.”
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. 
yeah<br /><br />via the magic of the net…<br />I found an interview with RJ<br />done in 1995<br /><br />&<br />really appreciated this :<br /><br />"RJ: No. I just write a line. I write lines. And as I go along I always remember the lines before so it leads me to the next line which leads me to the next line …."<br /><br />seems like Ron Johnson "dropped out" (died)
Yes—<i>that</i> Ron Johnson. A terrific poet, and <i>Radi Os</i> is a wonderful read. Not a case of "another brilliant idea that won't work" (as my friend Reg Saner puts it in one of his poems). He manages to discover an almost Zen core in Milton that I would never have seen, and that I think is actually not there. But the fact that Johnson can make it be there… well, that's
"deeply thought-less"<br /><br />I like that especially the use of the hyphen <br /><br /><br />"boss"<br /><br />and<br /><br />is Ronald Johnson THE Ron Johnson of<br /><br />The Book of the Green Man and The Shrubberies (his last collection)<br /><br />he sure had/has a terrific eye and ear ..<br /><br />Guy Davenport said of RJ's "stuff" :<br /><br />&
Kokkie's right, Lyle. "Punch cards." I remember them well. The first office job I ever had was with an educational testing company that processed thousands of the buggers—responses to standardized tests. My job was to sort them by the codes on the long side of each card. My first brush with dementia. I felt that same creeping enervation when I contemplated Beaulieu's project.<br
I approached it with an open mind. It's described as a translation "project". Beaulieu transforms selected text words into color blocks and it's presented as a "translation project." The words "conceptual writing" and "concrete art" are applied to it. I don't get it. Asked once about conceptual writing, Kenneth Goldsmith claimed it doesn'
here is what I was referring to:<br /><br />http://the-otolith.blogspot.com/2010/12/reed-altemus.html<br /><br /><br />WOW! I Am @ a l[xxx##%[ 4or ..>><<<s.<br /><br />this "poet" is actually studying how to black-line someone else's worK at University and is on his/her way to an MA (now called an MFA) and a Phd…in 'it'then he-she<br />will be able to "
they were 'punch cards'<br /><br />we used them to run information into computers IBM 407 s, 1401 s the computers in those days just took the information off of the cards and didn't do much more than continuously sort that information<br />and the print out lists of that info sometime in the early 60 "we" got a bigger computer so the info was "dumped" on a
The art example here initially reminded me of those computer cards of half a century ago (has it really been that long?) with small rectangular holes punched, as it seemed, randomly.<br /><br />Actually someone could probably create a picture like the sample here, by laying one of those computer cards on top of a sheet of paper, as a stencil of sorts, and then spraying (or air-brushing) paint.<br
how can you possibly think that they can spell a big word like<br /><br />"pretentious" when they can't even spell a simple,<br />compund, word like "horse shit"?<br /><br />&<br />you can not expect them to understand "poetry"<br />any more than a lay person can understan quantummum physics!<br /><br /><br />Kokkie-san