sheen's korner y/n lol
― acoleuthic, Thursday, 10 March 2011 23:46 (thirteen years ago) link
saw louise gluck read last night.http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Oi3ehb2uRrc/TKsgIOPpCnI/AAAAAAAAB0I/eDk4awT-_MM/s640/gluck1.jpg
― bnw, Friday, 11 March 2011 21:44 (thirteen years ago) link
i am reading a copy of mark halliday's jab, pub. 2002. it was in my amazon save-for-later list and i have no memory of what led me to place it there. i am having trouble with it, mainly because in register/idiom he is v. close to yoni wolf of why?, which means i keep hearing everything half-rapped for a line or two and then get lost when there's no rhythm to make work
viz.
if you were standing frozen in sweated confusionat the Personal Furnishings rackin a giant department store five days before Christmaswearing a woolly jacket that belonged to someone long goneand trying not to seem dangerousunder silver and scarlet decorations with no conceptionof adequate reply to tremendous departures
― thomp, Monday, 5 September 2011 11:37 (twelve years ago) link
This, though, I like, although it is a bit ILMish I 'spose
Trumpet Player, 1963
When Jan and Dean recorded "Surf City"there must have been one guy—
I see this trumpet player (was there even a horn section in that song?Say there was)—
I see this one trumpet player with his tie askewor maybe he's wearing a loose tropical-foliage shirtsitting on a metal chair waitingfor the session to reach the big choruswhere Jan and Dean exultTwo girls for every boy—and he's thinkingof his hundred nights on his buddy Marvin's hairy stainy sofaand the way hot dogs and coffee make a mud miseryand the way one girl is far too much and besideshe hasn't had the one in fourteen months, wait,it's fifteen now.Surfing—what life actually lets guys ride boardson waves? Is it all fiction? Is it a joke?Jan and Dean and their pal Brian act like it's a fine, good jokewhereas this trumpet player thinks it's actually shit, if anybody asked him, a tidal wave of shit.
― thomp, Monday, 5 September 2011 14:58 (twelve years ago) link
tho' it occurs to me that "actually" is functioning, in my head, the way chris addison or stewart lee might use it: that this switch in register is occurring largely in my head to the particular mode of comedy that isn't quite good enough to justify how bound up it all is in the self-presentation of every British male I know under thirty.
Which is probably irrelevant. I don't know. I half-like this guy. But "what life actually lets guys ride boards / on waves" almost gets to something, & that could remedy this poem, except that it falls so flatly there, is so bluntly stated, that it just kind of sits in the middle of the poem and gets in the way.
― thomp, Monday, 5 September 2011 15:07 (twelve years ago) link
I like Halliday a lot, especially his first book Little Star, which was embarrassed/confessional/honest in a funny way. He has a kind of casualness that may have been fresher in the world before blogs and message boards.
― reggae night staple center (Eazy), Monday, 5 September 2011 18:25 (twelve years ago) link
Just started reading lots of Anne Carson which has been consistently blowing me away.
― Michael_Pemulis, Monday, 5 September 2011 22:50 (twelve years ago) link
There's something about his assumption of a stance of resignedness that I find weirdly offputting: that might be part of it.
Meanwhile, today the British poet laureate told us that "poetry is the original text messaging" -- also that "If you look at rapping, for example, a band like Arctic Monkeys uses lyrics in a poetic way."
― thomp, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 10:43 (twelve years ago) link
Has anyone read Philip Levine, the new U.S. laureate? I didn't realise they had such sharply defined terms for the job, over there.
― thomp, Tuesday, 6 September 2011 10:44 (twelve years ago) link
He's one of the 1928 poets (also Merwin, Ashbery, Kinnell, and more. This one and this are representative of his work. Depending on the poem, reads like bad Whitman or great Whitman. Easy reading, in terms of flow and clarity.
― reggae night staple center (Eazy), Wednesday, 7 September 2011 00:03 (twelve years ago) link
i never mentioned on this thread that i'd read lynn emanuel's noose and hook, which i thought was kind of fantastic
― desperado, rough rider (thomp), Monday, 20 February 2012 22:28 (twelve years ago) link
Maggot - Paul Muldoon. Read through about a month ago, didn't leave a huge impression. Liked that first combat/cancer sequence, but overall I'm feeling a bit worn out by the Muldoon music: that rhyme game again, verse always twists into the same patterns of unexpectedness. A step back from that big poem at the end of Horse Latitudes maybe? Anyway, he's interesting, always distinctive, etc etc but I don't really like his verse that much
is this the one with the sort-of sonnet-sequence with the repeating verse? yeah that sucked
― desperado, rough rider (thomp), Monday, 20 February 2012 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
I need recommendations! The last poetry I read was a collection of (Dante Gabriel) Rossetti sonnets.
― Exile in lolville (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 20 February 2012 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
Then you might like Charles Sinker's poem about, actually to Parkinson's. Mark's context becomes poetic too, under the pressure of communicationhttp://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2012/02/music-poetry-parkinsons-disease/
― dow, Monday, 20 February 2012 23:39 (twelve years ago) link
I'm a poet, you guys should read me. Google "crucial spawl"
― Raymond Cummings, Wednesday, 7 March 2012 05:47 (twelve years ago) link
Read a fair bit of Hugo Williams's Collected Poems; always found him sporadically impressive but a bit footling before, then read that poem from a few LRBs back, 'From the Dialysis Ward', and thought it brilliant. Reading the Collected, felt I was closer to right the first time, tho' I underestimated him a bit - gifted, first collection terrific, but really rapidly slides - fairly dull poet of domesticity, prosy line, and a removed/poised patrician thing that grates. Also half his poems are about his dad, he should let that go. Feel like his most fertile territory is poetry about being quite handsome, this is an unusual topic.
― woof, Saturday, 23 March 2013 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
Hey I'm a poet too, read me, google "yeah right"
― donald nitchie, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 01:07 (eleven years ago) link
You seem to speak sarcastically, as if being a poet were some unattainable height. On the contrary, a poet is just a person who writes poetry. There are great poets, good poets, intermittently competent poets, rather bad poets and horrible crapulous poets. btw, writing one poem is not enough to qualify as a poet. At a minimum you have to work at it and care about poetry.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 01:36 (eleven years ago) link
just finished Charles Bernstein's latest, Recalculating. never read Bernstein before; found the book bracing, challenging, and (ultimately) wonderful. what else should I read?
― underused emoticons I have gotten confused (bernard snowy), Wednesday, 27 March 2013 01:48 (eleven years ago) link
Agree with you Aimless on all points. Sarcasm intended, though I thought Raymond's post was like a poem worthy of pointing out (though I didn't google "crucial..." Did you?) I also think every poem written is implicitly saying Hey I'm a poet read me, and is greeted with (and rightly so) Yeah right
btw, Charles Bernstein is, I think, a waste of time as a critic but an an intermittently competent poet. Read Girly Man
― donald nitchie, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 03:52 (eleven years ago) link
I also think every poem written is implicitly saying Hey I'm a poet read me
An interesting critical stance, but not one I expect to take the world by storm.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 27 March 2013 04:29 (eleven years ago) link
DOES ANYONE HAVE AN OPINION ON PATRICIA LOCKWOOD oops capslock
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Sunday, 7 April 2013 14:37 (eleven years ago) link
http://www.theawl.com/2011/12/two-poems-by-patricia-lockwood
bernstein is pretty good at both criticism and poetry but girly man is maybe his worst thing ever, get a copy of 'all the whisky in heaven: selected poems' (been remaindered i think?), have a flick through 'attack of the difficult poems' and 'content's dream' if you have access to a library with that sort of thing, particularly 'recantorium' in the former
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Sunday, 7 April 2013 14:39 (eleven years ago) link
one of the poems in the new book is a list of the words in girly man, in descending order of frequency
I got the selected, haven't done more than flip thru it yet tho
― Emeralds should have definitely done this before they split imo (bernard snowy), Monday, 8 April 2013 18:33 (eleven years ago) link
more patricia lockwood, sort of
http://www.thingx.tv/articles/mad-men-poetry-recap-season-6-premiere-2335/
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Monday, 8 April 2013 18:54 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry guys
I suck at self promo
― Raymond Cummings, Sunday, 14 April 2013 04:07 (eleven years ago) link
i flipped through the new bernstein the other day in st marks bookshop and it didn't really "click", unfortunately, but i want to return to it at some point. i really like the poetry of ben lerner, and have read two of his collections: the lichtenberg figures and angel of yaw. they touch on theoretical questions, and in this way show the influence of the Language poets (i suppose), but for the most part work really well just as lyrics. There is a lot of humor in his work, and an everpresent mood of sublimated melancholy... the prematurely resigned sadness of the precocious artist. Here is a link to some poems from the Lichtenburg Figures (2004): http://www.theparisreview.org/poetry/248/ifrom-i-the-lichtenberg-figures-ben-lerner Lerner's 2011 novel "Leaving the Atocha Station" is very enjoyable too.
― Pat Finn, Sunday, 14 April 2013 05:56 (eleven years ago) link
Hey, a good friend of mine has an essay in today's NY Times about the influence of Jack Handey's Deep Thoughts on a new generation of American poets.
― cougars and sneezers (Eazy), Sunday, 14 April 2013 13:50 (eleven years ago) link
that is a good essay and i should probably read some of those poets
― attempt to look intentionally nerdy, awkward or (thomp), Sunday, 14 April 2013 16:27 (eleven years ago) link
that lerner poem upthread is really good! that is all
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 01:28 (eleven years ago) link
or 'those lerner poems', i'm not really sure
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 01:30 (eleven years ago) link
they are separate poems. the lichtenburg figures is a sonnet sequence actually. but thanks, yeah, he is one of my favorite contemporary poets. if you liked those you should check out his novel too, which had me laughing out loud at several points.
― Pat Finn, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 03:11 (eleven years ago) link
Damn!
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KBK1sjr-MT8
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 14:22 (eleven years ago) link
I said, damn!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBK1sjr-MT8
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 14:23 (eleven years ago) link
not watching that
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 15:38 (eleven years ago) link
was it a requirement of the form that they address their damn poems to famous women, what's that about
i saw louise mathias read last weekend and think she is pretty wonderful - there's a small sampling of her stuff here:
http://home.earthlink.net/~pero/louise-mathias.html
― Salt Mama Celeste (donna rouge), Tuesday, 16 April 2013 17:51 (eleven years ago) link
thanks for linking that jack handey article, eazy
― johnny crunch, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 18:03 (eleven years ago) link
Emily Berry's "Dear Boy" is absolutely fantastic, btw
― ✌_✌ (c sharp major), Sunday, 9 June 2013 17:42 (ten years ago) link
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/media/landays.html#feature
― Public Brooding Closet (cryptosicko), Thursday, 13 June 2013 03:25 (ten years ago) link
What's a good anthology of recent/contemporary American poetry?
― cardamon, Thursday, 20 June 2013 01:55 (ten years ago) link
the examples in that jack handey article sound a lot more like npr moth radio hour bits than deep thoughts
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Thursday, 20 June 2013 03:37 (ten years ago) link
probably not the right thread for it but, what do people think of jorie graham
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Thursday, 20 June 2013 16:58 (ten years ago) link
Have never liked a Jorie Graham poem, but in each case you could def come up with a list of interesting things the poem could be said to be doing.
― cardamon, Thursday, 20 June 2013 17:45 (ten years ago) link
haha yeah i see that
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Thursday, 20 June 2013 19:08 (ten years ago) link
I'm co-signing with cardamon's comment.
― Aimless, Thursday, 20 June 2013 20:16 (ten years ago) link
that's kind of how i feel about all poetry tho
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Thursday, 20 June 2013 20:26 (ten years ago) link
I saw Jorie Graham give a talk and a Q&A once and she was lucid and compelling, and I was like, Oh! I like her when she speaks directly!
― lols lane (Eazy), Friday, 21 June 2013 02:22 (ten years ago) link
yup, with cardamon here. I think of her as epitome of in-the-academy US poetry.
― woof, Friday, 21 June 2013 09:35 (ten years ago) link
Plax, his collecteds (there are three editions, with timely additions in each) are worth looking for, but the one that gets most people into him is 'The White Stones,' which was reissued by NYRB a few years ago. The book is an outlier, in some ways, as the density and hermetic wordplay of his later work is not as foregrounded, but it's a lovely book, with some absolutely devastating poems in it.
― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Tuesday, 29 June 2021 22:23 (two years ago) link
lol all of white stones is on genius.com for some reason!
― plax (ico), Wednesday, 30 June 2021 12:43 (two years ago) link
Ha, brilliant
― heyy nineteen, that's john belushi (the table is the table), Wednesday, 30 June 2021 13:17 (two years ago) link
I bought an actual physical copy of "Walkman" last week, at a bookstore in Cincinnati. I like it.
― o. nate, Tuesday, 6 July 2021 23:04 (two years ago) link
😬 https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/jia-tolentino/
― jaymc, Friday, 6 August 2021 20:11 (two years ago) link
I have been enjoying the twitter reaction to that incredibly bad poem today.
― emil.y, Friday, 6 August 2021 20:52 (two years ago) link
I agree with the magazine's slogan: whatever that is, I'm against it.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Friday, 6 August 2021 21:22 (two years ago) link
.
― No Particular Place to POLL (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 6 August 2021 21:41 (two years ago) link
jesus
― flopson, Saturday, 7 August 2021 05:49 (two years ago) link
, conditionally,
― jmm, Saturday, 7 August 2021 12:31 (two years ago) link
lol i was wondering if that would get posted here
― plax (ico), Saturday, 7 August 2021 16:54 (two years ago) link