Matthew Zapruder has a nice essay online (an excerpt from his new book) at the Paris Review about the experience of reading poetry. Rather than trying to summarize it, I'll let the link and this money quote suffice. "Poetry is a constructed conversion on the frontier of dreaming." Like Zapruder, I had difficulty enjoying or appreciating the poetry of John Ashbery when I first encountered him. Now, of course, I revere John Ashbery's poems. But back in my youth when I first encountered him my reading expectations were, well, conventional. I expected a clear theme, discernible images and even a plot. A little epiphany at the end of the poem that tied it all up nicely was much appreciated. Eventually I got used to the idea of an open field and the pleasures of drifting through various landscapes and geographies. Only then did Ashbery start making sense to me. But as the Talking Heads told us, "Stop Making Sense" is maybe a better strategy for conveying a mood or feeling.
Thursday, May 24, 2018
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Poetry Indoors and Outdoors
Ah, the season is finally upon us when poetry can move outdoors. At first I was a little discombobulated by the Bryant Park "reading room," which is actually just a few rows of benches and some sound equipment and Bryant Park where I've heard some excellent poets read in recent years. Last year, Ocean Vuong and Phillip B. Williams were among the attractions. This week, in what might have been the reading room's first poetry event of the year, I had the pleasure of hearing Jim Moore (one of Minnesota's best known poets) read alongside Marilyn Nelson and Katha Pollitt.
It can be a little distracting, sitting outside in blessed weather, one's attention sometimes drifts to the jugglers on the other side of the park. Tuesday night's reading consisted of a celebrations of the "poetry in motion" program, which posts broadsides of poetry in subway and bus stops. The readers not only read their own work that had been included in the program but also some of their favorite poems by other writers that have graced the subway walls.
And on Wednesday, I descended into the long, somewhat foreboding basement of the Cornelia Street cafe, another storied venue for literature and music, to hear Timothy Liu and some of his colleagues and students from William Paterson University read. Timothy Liu is always entertaining and upbeat, even when reading poetry that delves deeply into the body's most secretive crevasses and desires. His colleagues, poets Paul LeTorre, Karthik Purushothamam, and Scott Wordsmith were reminders that much of the most vital work being written today is being produced by young poets I often haven'theard of before I finally hear them read. Purushothamam collaborated on one piece with a singer songwriter who had written a song which shared some anti-Trumpian affinity with his poetry, which was a reminder that whenever musicians and poets perform together, it usually brings out the best in both of them.
And of course, I can't say enough about the Split This Rock poetry festival in Washington, D.C., which I finally attended in April. The fusing of poetry and activism seems especially needed in our current times, and perhaps earlier generations of poetry and activism have suffered from a stigma against politically informed poetry. Time we all got "woke" to the value of poetic activism. Below are some pictures.
It can be a little distracting, sitting outside in blessed weather, one's attention sometimes drifts to the jugglers on the other side of the park. Tuesday night's reading consisted of a celebrations of the "poetry in motion" program, which posts broadsides of poetry in subway and bus stops. The readers not only read their own work that had been included in the program but also some of their favorite poems by other writers that have graced the subway walls.
And on Wednesday, I descended into the long, somewhat foreboding basement of the Cornelia Street cafe, another storied venue for literature and music, to hear Timothy Liu and some of his colleagues and students from William Paterson University read. Timothy Liu is always entertaining and upbeat, even when reading poetry that delves deeply into the body's most secretive crevasses and desires. His colleagues, poets Paul LeTorre, Karthik Purushothamam, and Scott Wordsmith were reminders that much of the most vital work being written today is being produced by young poets I often haven'theard of before I finally hear them read. Purushothamam collaborated on one piece with a singer songwriter who had written a song which shared some anti-Trumpian affinity with his poetry, which was a reminder that whenever musicians and poets perform together, it usually brings out the best in both of them.
And of course, I can't say enough about the Split This Rock poetry festival in Washington, D.C., which I finally attended in April. The fusing of poetry and activism seems especially needed in our current times, and perhaps earlier generations of poetry and activism have suffered from a stigma against politically informed poetry. Time we all got "woke" to the value of poetic activism. Below are some pictures.
 |
| Katha Pollitt |
 |
| Jim Moore in Bryant Park |
 |
| Sarah Browning, Ellen Bass, Elizabeth Acevedo, Solmaz Sharif at Split This Rock |
 |
| Danez Smith, Franny Choi, Fatimah Asghar, Hieu Minh Nguyen and Sam Sax also present at Split This Rock. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)