From “The Edge of the Frame”, by Tony Hoagland (an excerpt) Joseph Cornell collected souvenirs of places he was miserable in, which pretty much was everywhere he went. Churchill felt afraid on stairs. Terrible migraines of Virginia Woolf entered her skull and would not be evicted. I read biographies because I want to…
Tag: american poetry
art and “experience”
new ideas for my personal aesthetics – as always; snitched … “Insofar as I was interested in the arts I was interested in the disconnect between my experience of actual artworks and the claims made on their behalf,” Ben Lerner: Leaving the Atocha Station (2011) Descent from the Cross – Detail Mary Magdalene In Leaving the Atocha Station, the…
Journal of a Solitude
May Sarton’s Journal of a Solitude was first published in 1973. She had written memoirs previously, but turned to journal writing in a quest for “a more immediate, less controlled record of life.” Journal of a Solitude: September 15th Begin here. It is raining. I look out on the maple, where few leaves have turned yellow,…
28 Short Lectures: Mary Ruefle
… an image a day
Existence itself is nothing if not an amazement
I’m reading Ten Windows by Jane Hirshfield. It’s a great book, a book to read slowly, to partake in. And it is a text very relevant to my ongoing investigation in the uses of art – listen to this: Poïesis as making A work of art is not a piece of fruit lifted from a branch:…
enchantment
This post made me want to take a closer look at Rita Felski’s book Uses of Literature (2008). Felski’s intention is to bridge the gap between literary theory and common-sense beliefs about why we read literature. Uses of Literature deals with four key elements of the reading experience: recognition, enchantment, knowledge, and shock. These four recall, as she…
perfectly useful concentration
What one seems to want in art, in experiencing it, is the same thing that is necessary for its creation, a self-forgetful, perfectly useless concentration. – Elizabeth Bishop, letter to Anne Stevenson, Jan. 1964 In the same boat: It’s very interesting to see how Bishop, in this short and powerful statement, parallels experiencing & creating…
Hi Plato, look at this!
Still soaked in the world of Anne Carson In ESSAY ON WHAT I THINK ABOUT MOST Carson dicuss the concept of ERROR (which is what she thinks about most) through a poem by the ancient Greek poet Alkman: (…) There are three things I like about Alkman’s poem. (…) The fourth thing I like About…
You can never use the infinitives and participles oddly enough
Did I ever tell you how much I like Anne Carson? Have a look at this: I hate traveling … you don’t think until you stumble on something, traveling makes you stumble all the time. Its spooky. Stumbling is good for writing … – Anne Carson (2001) Quad (1981) a television play by Samuel…
A Drop of Spicer
I’d like to start my week with a short poem by Jack Spicer, I think you should too; Thing Language This ocean, humiliating in its disguises Tougher than anything. No one listens to poetry. The ocean Does not mean to be listened to. A drop Or crash of water. It means Nothing. It Is bread…
sub rosa 