"I used to feel I was goofing off unless I held only to the hard, clear image, the thing you could put your hand on but now I dare do this reflection" ( Lorine Niedecker, Correspondence)
Say, Zuks! the upper limit of what--
pine's third limb down
(banking right & lithe)
or wing's phish?
Every vowel bit (with the nerve to
to do it!) won't empty
into You. That's that
Again, if she only saw better, you'd
see oval-eyed & fair
were not for thee
And "better shine" than this, plumper
she'd made already since
it's all heart & all likeable
and you're
not. And a fracturing you'll always go,
without wing. But, Zuks
ever find why she's pine
to your "swamp"?
11 comments:
Pine to Zuk's swamp indeed! One feels inclined to call her "Lorine" as we do "Emily." But who would care to call Zuks "Louis"? Even the few passages that are readable aren't humane. A fine tribute here, Conrad!
Thanks, Joseph
I've been looking at some of the correspondences (Penberthy) with poetry and I can't for the life of me reconcile the beautiful elegant (almost 'surrealistic' at times)voice of a uniquely distinctive 'time' and 'place' to the cold hard thing to which Williams, Zuks, et al tried to reduce the poetic cosmos.
Been reading Zuk's 'prepositions' and all that objectivist edition of Poetry stuff, et al and, though interesting in itself, can't (without being seen as rapacious) be forced on anyone, as it certainly was on Niedecker. The man was, following Pound, notoriously misogynistic. (Is it true Pound didn't allow the wives of poets to enter his home?)
Nuff said. It makes me a little pissed off to think, again, of another case of misplaced accolades.
well
in that group
I am partial to
Oppen, Carl Rakosi & Reznikoff (who my mother knew via the HOA
"OH, yes. The Reznikoff's were handsome boys. Good dressers. They were in clothing. And THAT Charles... was a good dancer."
try on for size Mary Oppen's By The Waters of Manhattan
et ceteras
OPPPS (again
I was in an hurry-up mode...
re-hanging most of my art
on newly painted walls....
giving things more
"space" to breathe...
that Mary Oppen book is MEANING A LIFE
the By the Waters of Manhattan is Charles Reznikoff's...
Ed,
wasn't it Oppen's wife Pound didn't allow to enter his home?
when Pound was here in D.C.
my first "teacher" Rudd Fleming's
wife, Polly
first befriended EP and brought Rudd over to
St. E's
as for your question ....
I just mostly read the poems
&
consider
everything
else
grist for
those who
write
term-papers
besides
any too hairy
comments/use of poems
re: Zukofsky
's gonna bring down heavy blows
from Paul !
as for that Oppen question
you might find something of it in either
Hatlen's GEORGE OPPEN Man and Poet
or in
Rachel Blau DuPlessis''' The Selected Letters of GO
(or, you just might ask Rachel ?)
mean-while
I am re-visiting another NYC Oldie Goldie Sam Menashe
Ed,
I could build a course of studies from your posts alone.
thanks
Conrad
one day
you'l visit
when you have
Less Time
&
per-use my
(saved)
55,322 emails.
be -sides the countless
'off-the-wall"
blog comments that
I've never saved / kept track of
there just might be
some two or six
seeds in the compost
that just might
in my old age/rage
germinate ?
Super, Conrad!
Ed,
that visit is just a question of time. Trust me
Vassilis,
thank you. Perhaps after your recent post on Niedecker something twigged...
Larry Eigner
once said to a friend of mine:
"my greatest desire is to be able to wipe my own ass."
bottom line ? Larry Eigner had a sense of humor ...
far beyond his/the situation.
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