I'm becoming a big fan of Alice Notley. 'Grave of Light' - her New & Selected Poems 1970-2005 - has led me to her essays collected in 'Coming After'. I used to spend hours reading & re-reading Ted Berrigan's Lectures. I wish I'd also been reading her poetic theory, too.
"the point will be to locate division, variation, play within the line, and to further investigate it. For there are infinite ways to stop and play, not just to segment and articulate a line, but to be in it and enjoy the space, as if that were the whole point."
I'm also becoming a big fan of Bernadette Mayer. This poem is as good as any to get the flavour:
CORN
corn is a small hard seed
corn from Delft
is good for elves
white corn, yellow, Indian
is this kernel a kernel of corn?
the corn they sought
was sown by night
The Corn Islands are two small islands,
Little Corn Island & Great Corn Island,
on an interoceanic canal route.
any of several
insects that bore in maize is a corn borer.
...
I'm going to spend a week around this poem next term.
As Alice Notley says, "there's so much sound around in the world to play with, really."
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Today, boys and girls, we’re going to look at ‘Song of the Chinchilla’ by Lisa Jarnot*. I liked the poem immediately – and I’ve given it to ...
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