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Plight
Among the finds from our recent trip to Oregon was a lovely collection of Cid Corman poems called Plight (The Elizabeth Press, 1968), discovered at Powell’s Books. Here’s one I’d give my eye teeth to have written: THE DIASPORA Uncle Harry—whyshould I rememberhim—half tinsmith half rabbi—the leaderof that wanderingalways foreign tribe living in a househis ancient motherkept immaculate— rarely visitedby any of us.He had a voice of such helpless sweetness,as if whateverhad to be said were better sung or keptfor the glory ofGod. And gentle.Read More
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Dunne on Corman
Here’s an illuminating review by Gregory Dunne of Cid Corman’s The Next One Thousand Years, first published in The Pacific Rim Review of Books. Having written about the book myself for The Bloomsbury Review, I was struck by the fact that there is not a single overlap between my illustrative sampling of Corman’s work and Mr. Dunne’s. Yes, Cid Corman’s excellence is just that broad and various.Read More
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By the Light of a Page (Updated)
This review appeared in the January/February 2009 Issue of The Bloomsbury Review. ©2009 by Joseph Hutchison. NOTE: A correction and some additional information has been appended to this post as of 01/21/09. The Next One Thousand Years: The Selected Poems of Cid Corman By Cid Corman Edited by Ce Rosenow and Bob Arnold 207 pages, paper ISBN-13: 978-1-929048-08-3 ISBN-10: 1-929048-08-4 Longhouse, Publishers & Booksellers 1604 River Road Guilford, VT 05301 All strong poets ground their work in their own “significant tradition”: an idiosyncratic, even contrarian view of what really matters in the history of their art.Read More
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Blogbooks…
I think you all know about Bill Knott’s making all his poetry available through Lulu.com and for free PDF download from his blog. Well, here’s another way of going at it. KC poet Scott Keeney is creating what he calls “blogbooks,” collections of his poems set up as individual blogs. An inventive idea! His latest is Sappho Does Hay(na)ku, available also as a limited edition chapbook from Sephyrus. Best of all, his poems are very good—minimalist in the best sense: Cid Cormanesque, Rae Armantroutish, etc. And if you’re wondering what “hay(na)ku” means, check here. Thanks to Eileen R.Read More
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A Note on Paul Blackburn (and Swiss cheese)
For some reason certain links from my response to Ted Burke’s recent blog entry on Paul Blackburn vanished when I posted it, creating what you might call a Swiss-cheese post. So I’m posting it here in all its glory—i.e., with links intact. You can find the Blackburn poem I’m referring to, in its correct format, here. As Burke notes in his post, he didn’t reproduce Blackburn’s original spatial presentation…. *** I wonder if anyone reading this poem would seek out more of Blackburn’s work. For me it’s too studied, a fairly pedestrian attempt at allegory.Read More
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More On Cid Corman
Elsewhere on this blog I noted the publication of The Next One Thousand Years, Selected Poems of Cid Corman. Here you’ll find more information about Corman, and about the other efforts by his Selected’s co-editor Bob Arnold toward preserving Corman’s legacy. In this effort, Bob Arnold is carrying on a historic tradition of dedicated lovers of fine literature who labor—without institutional sinecure or monetary reward—to ensure that the work of neglected writers survives long enough to find the wider audience it deserves.Read More
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A Welcome New Selection of Cid Corman’s Poetry
Longhouse Publishers is about to release an important new selection of poems by the prolific Cid Corman, who passed away in 2004. The Next One Thousand Years, Selected Poems of Cid Corman is edited Ce Rosenow and Bob Arnold, have done a beautiful job of gathering poems that represent the prolific Corman at his best—and at his best, Corman produced powerful, sleek, transparent poems that make us feel we’re witnessing fresh realizations as they come into being.Read More