From the Nervous System
"Today the idea of progress [in art] has disappeared. The only aspiration presented to young artists seems to be to fit into an existing social structure governed by the aesthetic mood of the moment; the artworld that he or she enters demands art that, year by year, might be eccentric, DIY, political, nihilistic, or shiny. These moods seem to spring from both larger political conditions as well as in reaction to artworld gambits of the immediate past (no more oversize C-prints, please, just ragged installations). To "emerge," an artist must respond to the climate, and so be recognized for whatever it is we want today." --Katy Siegel from "Butterflies Are Free: The Problem with Emerging Artists," Modern Painters, Dec. 2006 - Jan. 2007
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Saturday, January 27, 2007
More NEW(s)
1) New TYPO!: http://www.typomag.com/issue09
2) New Alice Blue Review!: http://www.alicebluereview.org
Check 'em out!
Congrats to the eds. of these great online journals!
1) New TYPO!: http://www.typomag.com/issue09
2) New Alice Blue Review!: http://www.alicebluereview.org
Check 'em out!
Congrats to the eds. of these great online journals!
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
NEW(S):
In alphabetical order:
H_NGM_N #6: http://www.h-ngm-n.com
Siren #3: http://www.sirenlit.com
Please enjoy. See the editors' announcements below.
Matt
1)
Boys & Girls
—H_NGM_N #6 goes live today!
http://www.h-ngm-n.com
Featuring:
Poems from Katy Acheson • Anonymous • Robyn Art • Daniel Borzutzky • JessicaBozek • Michael Broder • Laura Cherry • Evan Commander • Mark DeCarteret •Neil de la Flor & Maureen Seaton • Darcie Dennigan • Julie Doxsee • ElisaGabbert • Matt Hart • Anne Heide • Dan Hoy • Michael Jauchen • Robert Krut •Justin Marks • Clay Matthews • John Pursley III • Mathias Svalina • JoshuaMarie Wilkinson • William D. Waltz • Wynn Yarbrough
A special section –THANK YOU, STEVE ORLEN – featuring 2 new poems from theman, a review of his New & Selected & other contributions by Adrian Blevins,Laura Cherry, Tony Hoagland, David Rivard & Martha Zweig.
Selection from longer works by Jim Goar, Viola Lee, Brent Pallas & ChrisRizzo.
2 new EP Poets – Philip Jenks & Danielle Pafunda.
Fiction by traci o connor, Jason Ockert & Magdalen Powers.
&
essays & reviews: Tom Dvorske on Anthony McCann • Justin Marks on
Meier • Clay Matthews on Ron Padgett & the Postmodern Sublime
All this plus a portfolio of artist Joey Slaughter’s work & some comix bySommer Browning!
http://www.h-ngm-n.com
*
Also today – the launch of COMBATIVES Vol. 1 #3 – a series of exquisitecorpses written by Sarah Lilius & Erin M. Bertram.
http://hngmn.squarespace.com/combatives/
As always, place one paypal order for Vol. 1 #3 & receive 3 copies of theissue. Because we like you lots & lots.
Thanks,
Nate Pritts,
EIC. H_NGM_N.
http://www.h-ngm-n.com
2)
Siren's issue three is up, out, and online
at sirenlit.com
And features the poetry of Arlene Ang, Kristy Bowen, Mark DeCarteret, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Jehanne Dubrow, Jason Fraley, Sam Rasnake, and a great new talent, C.R. Rappel, the photography of two of my favorite artists, Katia Fuentes and Marcela L. (whose work is also on the homepage), creative nonfiction by Erin McKnight, based on her childhood in South Africa, an Among the Best of 2006, with the recommendations of five of our (past and present) contributing poets, Dorianne Laux, David Hernandez, Bruce Covey, Jason Fraley, and Kiki Petrosino, as well as the editor's
And check out our new "Notes and News" page, accessible from the homepage, with the latest achievements of and updates on several of the writers who have appeared in Siren.
I hope you enjoy the new issue, and thank you, as always, for your interest in Siren.
All good things,
Sara Kearns, editor
In alphabetical order:
H_NGM_N #6: http://www.h-ngm-n.com
Siren #3: http://www.sirenlit.com
Please enjoy. See the editors' announcements below.
Matt
1)
Boys & Girls
—H_NGM_N #6 goes live today!
http://www.h-ngm-n.com
Featuring:
Poems from Katy Acheson • Anonymous • Robyn Art • Daniel Borzutzky • JessicaBozek • Michael Broder • Laura Cherry • Evan Commander • Mark DeCarteret •Neil de la Flor & Maureen Seaton • Darcie Dennigan • Julie Doxsee • ElisaGabbert • Matt Hart • Anne Heide • Dan Hoy • Michael Jauchen • Robert Krut •Justin Marks • Clay Matthews • John Pursley III • Mathias Svalina • JoshuaMarie Wilkinson • William D. Waltz • Wynn Yarbrough
A special section –THANK YOU, STEVE ORLEN – featuring 2 new poems from theman, a review of his New & Selected & other contributions by Adrian Blevins,Laura Cherry, Tony Hoagland, David Rivard & Martha Zweig.
Selection from longer works by Jim Goar, Viola Lee, Brent Pallas & ChrisRizzo.
2 new EP Poets – Philip Jenks & Danielle Pafunda.
Fiction by traci o connor, Jason Ockert & Magdalen Powers.
&
essays & reviews: Tom Dvorske on Anthony McCann • Justin Marks on
Meier • Clay Matthews on Ron Padgett & the Postmodern Sublime
All this plus a portfolio of artist Joey Slaughter’s work & some comix bySommer Browning!
http://www.h-ngm-n.com
*
Also today – the launch of COMBATIVES Vol. 1 #3 – a series of exquisitecorpses written by Sarah Lilius & Erin M. Bertram.
http://hngmn.squarespace.com/combatives/
As always, place one paypal order for Vol. 1 #3 & receive 3 copies of theissue. Because we like you lots & lots.
Thanks,
Nate Pritts,
EIC. H_NGM_N.
http://www.h-ngm-n.com
2)
Siren's issue three is up, out, and online
at sirenlit.com
And features the poetry of Arlene Ang, Kristy Bowen, Mark DeCarteret, Nicole Cartwright Denison, Jehanne Dubrow, Jason Fraley, Sam Rasnake, and a great new talent, C.R. Rappel, the photography of two of my favorite artists, Katia Fuentes and Marcela L. (whose work is also on the homepage), creative nonfiction by Erin McKnight, based on her childhood in South Africa, an Among the Best of 2006, with the recommendations of five of our (past and present) contributing poets, Dorianne Laux, David Hernandez, Bruce Covey, Jason Fraley, and Kiki Petrosino, as well as the editor's
And check out our new "Notes and News" page, accessible from the homepage, with the latest achievements of and updates on several of the writers who have appeared in Siren.
I hope you enjoy the new issue, and thank you, as always, for your interest in Siren.
All good things,
Sara Kearns, editor
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
SHOEGAZER: THE STARS
Metatarsal foot support.
*****
Duchamp: A Biography
*****
Duchamp: A Biography
How I Work as a Poet
Blackbirds, ambling down Manning...
*****
When I use a word like "tradition" in talking about my poetics (how ridiculous -- poetics!) I don't mean anything static -- I mean something open -- constantly in flux, both emendable and corrigible. For example, obviously, Tzara's cut-up method is now a part of the "Tradition" of poetry (and also of art), but in its moment it was experimental -- not to mention, also, avant-garde (experimental and avant-garde aren't necessarily the same thing).
Still (with Tzara yet in mind), much of what passes these days for "experimental poetry" involves cutting things up and putting them back together in a variety of different ways -- some work, some don't.
When I juxtapose words like "traditional" and "experimental" my only aim is to include the WHOLE of poetry -- its every possibility.
*****
Architecture...
--Merely architecture? Like a living skeleton? There's no such thing as a living skeleton...
*****
I am not at all interested in prescribing RULES for writing poetry (either for myself or anyone else) -- particularly not ones which limit poetic expression. On the contrary, what I'm arguing for is inclusiveness of method, style, technique, etc. The poet should be (and is, of course) at liberty to USE anything and any means necessary to make a poem. This is great. This is how I try to work as well.
I do feel, however, that there is a lot of contemporary poetry that has taken on the liberty of means at the expense of the ends and aims of poetry -- in Johannes Goransson's words, work which is all "style". That seems to me a good/clear way to put it. And I would like to add (primarily as a reminder to myself) that: the payoff for reading a poem should be proportional to the amount and kind of work that it takes to read it, i.e. to GET it. This payoff may be a matter of form or content or both (certainly it is a matter of material choice), but my favorite payoffs are those which point me both inside and outside the poem. Perhaps I am excited by work which contains a sort of conscientiousness of the fact that poems are made by people for human reasons. I do not feel that this is a limitation, rather merely a necessity (a necessary, though not sufficient condition) if a poem is to be significant -- and by significant I mean: something more than the sum of its parts and process.
*****
Avant-gardes are always most IMPORTANT as a response in/to their art/historical moment. Eventually they are subsumed as a part of the tradition.
Fantastic!
At that point they cease being avant-garde and their methods, techniques, and approaches to making work become another set of tools in the poet's toolbox/arsenal, i.e. they can no longer be used by themselves to "make it new" -- though they can and should be used to "make it" -- and also to "make it" in the service of whatever the NEW NEWNESS happens to be, which in our time (after the collapse of art and theory into one big manic ball of contusion) is something that is not be reducible to a mathematical or poetic FORMULA.
When one boils away the fat of the poetry that matters, something inexplicable, surprising, depth-charged remains.
*****
--Remains?
Blackbirds, ambling down Manning...
*****
When I use a word like "tradition" in talking about my poetics (how ridiculous -- poetics!) I don't mean anything static -- I mean something open -- constantly in flux, both emendable and corrigible. For example, obviously, Tzara's cut-up method is now a part of the "Tradition" of poetry (and also of art), but in its moment it was experimental -- not to mention, also, avant-garde (experimental and avant-garde aren't necessarily the same thing).
Still (with Tzara yet in mind), much of what passes these days for "experimental poetry" involves cutting things up and putting them back together in a variety of different ways -- some work, some don't.
When I juxtapose words like "traditional" and "experimental" my only aim is to include the WHOLE of poetry -- its every possibility.
*****
Architecture...
--Merely architecture? Like a living skeleton? There's no such thing as a living skeleton...
*****
I am not at all interested in prescribing RULES for writing poetry (either for myself or anyone else) -- particularly not ones which limit poetic expression. On the contrary, what I'm arguing for is inclusiveness of method, style, technique, etc. The poet should be (and is, of course) at liberty to USE anything and any means necessary to make a poem. This is great. This is how I try to work as well.
I do feel, however, that there is a lot of contemporary poetry that has taken on the liberty of means at the expense of the ends and aims of poetry -- in Johannes Goransson's words, work which is all "style". That seems to me a good/clear way to put it. And I would like to add (primarily as a reminder to myself) that: the payoff for reading a poem should be proportional to the amount and kind of work that it takes to read it, i.e. to GET it. This payoff may be a matter of form or content or both (certainly it is a matter of material choice), but my favorite payoffs are those which point me both inside and outside the poem. Perhaps I am excited by work which contains a sort of conscientiousness of the fact that poems are made by people for human reasons. I do not feel that this is a limitation, rather merely a necessity (a necessary, though not sufficient condition) if a poem is to be significant -- and by significant I mean: something more than the sum of its parts and process.
*****
Avant-gardes are always most IMPORTANT as a response in/to their art/historical moment. Eventually they are subsumed as a part of the tradition.
Fantastic!
At that point they cease being avant-garde and their methods, techniques, and approaches to making work become another set of tools in the poet's toolbox/arsenal, i.e. they can no longer be used by themselves to "make it new" -- though they can and should be used to "make it" -- and also to "make it" in the service of whatever the NEW NEWNESS happens to be, which in our time (after the collapse of art and theory into one big manic ball of contusion) is something that is not be reducible to a mathematical or poetic FORMULA.
When one boils away the fat of the poetry that matters, something inexplicable, surprising, depth-charged remains.
*****
--Remains?
--Sounds grave.
*****
Nothing static. Everything overlapping. Open-ended...
*****
Ted Berrigan's sonnets are a perfect example of poems made by any means necessary (both traditional -- the sonnet, the sonnet sequence, lyric expressiveness, etc. -- and experimental -- collage, appropriation, the space of the page, etc. -- see I'm using these terms loosely, ordinarily) to make poems that operate at the highest levels of both aesthetic practice and real human import. That is, once again, they were not MERELY experimental for their own sake. Berrigan never lost sight of the poem as a human document, one that does important -- emotional and aesthetic -- POETIC WORK.
*****
Clearly, I don't KNOW anything -- nor do I think I really want to. Talking with my friend DW about blogging last week -- I realize how silly all of this actually sounds -- and also how certain -- perhaps even pompous it may seem. Please understand that that is neither the intent, nor the spirit in which I am writing. DW knows this, because he knows me, but what about the other few of you...?
*****
Perfervid excitement! And then this thing
*****
O
The house across your lips
*****
Nothing static. Everything overlapping. Open-ended...
*****
Ted Berrigan's sonnets are a perfect example of poems made by any means necessary (both traditional -- the sonnet, the sonnet sequence, lyric expressiveness, etc. -- and experimental -- collage, appropriation, the space of the page, etc. -- see I'm using these terms loosely, ordinarily) to make poems that operate at the highest levels of both aesthetic practice and real human import. That is, once again, they were not MERELY experimental for their own sake. Berrigan never lost sight of the poem as a human document, one that does important -- emotional and aesthetic -- POETIC WORK.
*****
Clearly, I don't KNOW anything -- nor do I think I really want to. Talking with my friend DW about blogging last week -- I realize how silly all of this actually sounds -- and also how certain -- perhaps even pompous it may seem. Please understand that that is neither the intent, nor the spirit in which I am writing. DW knows this, because he knows me, but what about the other few of you...?
*****
Perfervid excitement! And then this thing
*****
O
The house across your lips
Not a cloud in the sky
You put on your pants
like a mouth-off...
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Friday, January 05, 2007
Lew Welch and Blasphemy (w/ a Nod Toward Gregory Corso)
"...There is no way to cheat, unless you go to too many schools, and try to be a poet.
Try to be a poet? What a blasphemy!
Unless you mean, as Gregory Corso did when he got the calling in prison in New York, to use the native speech which is as much a part of you as your eyes and hair, and mean to use it to the end of truth and life (against all odds in a deranged world), to use his speech, your own speech, the language of your father and your mother and your friends, the primary tool of all your actions toward all your wants and needs, to use this speech as a weapon, a tool, a singer's voice, the means to total sharing of all your Mind, unless you mean to do that, then try[ing] to be a poet is blasphemy."
-- Lew Welch from his essay "Language Is Speech" collected in How I Work as a Poet
"...There is no way to cheat, unless you go to too many schools, and try to be a poet.
Try to be a poet? What a blasphemy!
Unless you mean, as Gregory Corso did when he got the calling in prison in New York, to use the native speech which is as much a part of you as your eyes and hair, and mean to use it to the end of truth and life (against all odds in a deranged world), to use his speech, your own speech, the language of your father and your mother and your friends, the primary tool of all your actions toward all your wants and needs, to use this speech as a weapon, a tool, a singer's voice, the means to total sharing of all your Mind, unless you mean to do that, then try[ing] to be a poet is blasphemy."
-- Lew Welch from his essay "Language Is Speech" collected in How I Work as a Poet
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