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Bök to the Future
The latest collection of “poetry” by Christian Bök. From a fascinating article in Seed Magazine: On May 16 the Zoological Society of London released a report suggesting that since contemporary environmentalism emerged with the declaration of the first Earth Day in 1970, close to one-third of all the wild species on Earth have disappeared. Language conservationists have fared no better: Of the world’s roughly 6,800 languages, fully half — though some experts say closer to 90 percent — are expected to disappear before the end of the century.Read More
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A Whisper from the Exobrain
Remember your favorite mantra as a kid during car trips: “Are we there yet?” Dilbert creator Scott Adams thinks so. Technically, you’re already a cyborg. If you keep your cell phone with you most of the time, especially if the earpiece is in place, I think we can call that arrangement an exobrain. Don’t protest that your cellphone isn’t part of your body just because you can leave it in your other pants.Read More
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Bacterio-Textual Flagellation
In Chapter 104 of Moby-Dick, Herman Melville puts these words into Ishmael’s mouth—but surely the sentiment is his own: In the mere act of penning my thoughts of this Leviathan, they weary me, and make me faint with the outreaching comprehensiveness of sweep, as if to include the whole circle of the sciences, and all the generations of whales, and men, and mastodons, past, present, and to come, with all the revolving panoramas of empire on earth, and throughout the whole universe, not excluding its suburbs.Read More
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Buddhism, Darwinism, Avant-Garde
In an earlier post I gave myself permission to post fragments. So here goes…. ===== I’ve been reading the new book by my favorite philosopher, Buddhist thinker David R. Loy. Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution pulls together shorter pieces written for magazines, and the venue seems to have encouraged great concentration and great simplicity in Loy, who is typically (anyway) capable of moving from the just-shy-of-obscure to flashes of brilliance with ease.Read More
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Scriptordillyicious…
Sometimes blogging encourages a shoot-from-the-hip mentality that doesn’t serve anyone well. But sometimes the rapid response reflex opens a door — which is what happened for me when I posted a reply to Ron Silliman’s post (do read it: it’s quite entertaining) praising a new anthology edited by Jeff Hilson, entitled The Reality Street Book of Sonnets. Here is my comment: A friend of mine, an artist, many years ago asserted that anything an artist calls art IS art. (Our wrangling over this, of course, came down to deciding what an “artist” is.Read More
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Linh Dinh on a Roll…
Linh Dinh is on a roll at his blog, Detainees. First, there’s this very rich post on the anima, alchemy, animism, and Betty Boop (including a classic BB cartoon with Cab Calloway singing the chorus to “St. James Infirmary Blues”). Next, there are three related articles (I recommend starting here and reading them in order) all dealing with Israel’s itch to attack Iran. One of the many things I admire about Dinh is his openness to every current out there—aesthetic, political, social, psychological, ecological, economic and more.Read More
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Another Response to Christian Bök
Over on the Poetry Foundation’s blog, a fellow named Christian Bök—who bills himself as “an experimental writer,” although he also constructs “conceptual artworks” out of Rubik’s cubes and Legos— has posted the sixth (!) in a series of musings about so-called poetic machines, which he rhapsodizes about in terms that would make dear old Kurt Vonnegut spin in his grave. Here’s my comment on his latest…. ________ I’ve been alternately annoyed and amused by Bök’s past postings, but now I see that I’m meant to be only amused.Read More
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A Response to Christian Bök
Here’s a response to Christian Bök that I posted on the Poetry Foundation’s Harriet blog, for what it’s worth….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. 
