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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