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The Further Adventures of Bill Knott
NOTE: This review appeared in the July/August 2008 Issue of The Bloomsbury Review. ©2008 by Joseph Hutchison. Stigmata Errata EtceteraPoems by Bill Knott Collages by Star Black Introduction by Mark Doty 68 pages, paper ISBN: 0-9754990-4-1 Saturnalia Books 13 E. Highland Avenue, 2nd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19118 Some poets adopt the artistic assumptions of their historical moment and achieve significance by discovering new subtleties in the existing modes or by extending the range of content those modes can accommodate.Read More
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Eco(logos), Eco(nomy), Community
Today’s Harriet post by Linh Dinh is a transcript of a talk given by Eleni Sikelianos during a panel at the Naropa Summer Writing Program earlier this month.Read More
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Poets and Their Audience
Seth Abramson, whose poems I’ve seen here and there and been very impressed by, has a new blog post that extends some previous ruminations on the question of the poet and the audience, although under the rubric of “The State of the Small Presses.” This new post it really doesn’t have much to do with the stated topic, but frankly I think that’s good: we must always begin with the poet/audience equation.Read More
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Further Adventures of Captain Ron
I have to thank Ron Silliman for his latest blog post, which for the first time has illuminated the chief reasons why his views on poetry get my hackles up. But let me start with what he gets right.Read More
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Poetry and the Poet’s Character
Reginald Shepherd, in a typically thoughtful and eloquent post, successfully critiques the notion that poets associated with Donald M. Allen’s seminal anthology, The New American Poets, wrote with political and/or social change as a goal. Unfortunately, as he reaches his conclusion, he uses his valuable analysis to make a puzzling claim: “If we were to judge works of art by their creators’ political positions, much would be ruled out of bounds.” On the surface this sounds admirably dispassionate; but the implications of his statement are troubling.Read More
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A Comment on “Rupture”
I just posted the below “prose poem” (or whatever) in response to Linh Dinh’s poem Rupture, for what it (my piece, I mean)’s worth…. THE INTRODUCTION The “I” in the next poem is not me. It is a rhetorical device, a psychological-being-state marker designed to make you feel comfortable as the poem progresses. Of course, the poem does not progress: “progress” is a rhetorical term designed to make you feel comfortable with the sense of alienation the next poem means to produce.Read More
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Adios, Tom Disch
Here’s a somber, lengthy obituary on Thomas M. Disch (a.k.a. Tom Disch when he was writing poetry), who declared his independence on July 4th, and more pedestrian piece here.Read More
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The Poetry of Outsidership
I just discovered a site called Goodreads, and yesterday I posted this brief review there. I’ve expanded it somewhat and added a few links for this incarnation. Someone once pointed out that judges of the Yale Younger Poets competition are dependent on what comes across their desks. There are fat years and lean years. W. S. Merwin’s first year as judge was a lean one, evidently, since he could find no manuscript worth publishing. But last year was a fat one, if Fady Joudah‘s The Earth in the Attic (selected by Louise Glück) is any indication.Read More
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The New HeartLodge Arrives
A couple of days ago I received the new (Summer 2008) issue of HeartLodge in the mail. The issue offers up a wide range of strong poems by nearly 50 writers, including my own “Kooser Creek.” (Readers will have to decide for themselves just how strong that one is!) Kudos to the HeartLodge editors—Cheryl Loetscher, Leta Grace McDonald, and Andrea L.Read More
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The Earth in the Attic
I just discovered a site called Goodreads, where I’ve experimentally posted a brief review of this year’s winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award, The Earth in the Attic, by Fady Joudah (selected by Louise Glück). I think this is the link to it.Read More