You got to diversify or die

“You just can’t write poetry.” The most truthful piece of advice I’ve heard since beginning my MFA. Poets, much like a good 401K, must be diversified. We need to be able to write in a host of other genres –reviews, criticism, fiction, and even children’s books. It’s the way things are, poetry doesn’t pay and it’s hard to get published.

So I’ve been trying to branch out creatively. Along with several MFA students we are starting a poetry review to gain valuable editorial experience. I’ll be conducting interview, writing book reviews, and of course choosing poetry. I’m also working on a series that involves a interview format with two poets of opposing poetics (still in the idea phase). I will also be entering the world of critical literature essays and hopefully theory.

I’ve been tossing around how to take my love of the avant garde/modernism and apply it to criticism. Right now the tension between what is formal, contemporary, and experimental poetry is swirling around my head. What can we learn by comparing these different approaches? My current idea is looking at the use of formalistic techniques in the avant garde poetry circles. Really how anti-formalist are they? I will be exploring the use of form and proposing the question: is the avant garde the New-new formalists? Keep an eye out for this one. Also if any one has any resources that can help forward a link to me.

Chris

First Writers at Newark Reading for 2010

Well Rutgers kicked off this semester’s reading series with two incredibly, though artistically different writers. Jayne Anne Philips, who as the director of the Program is the brain trust behind the MFA program and organizer of our monthly star studded readings. She was reading selections from her newest novel and finalist for several awards, Lark & Termite. Poet Roger Sedarat read from his collection Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic” was my pleasure to read beforehand.

The subject of violent/cruel/ repressive foreign governments in differing degrees appeared in each of their works. For Phillips there is the character Leavitt who is an American Solider attempting to save South Koreans from the North. We witness firsthand the lengths a government will go to protect its interests. Sedarat’s book looked at and cast a critical eye on the government of Iran which rules with Islamic law and fear. While Phillips focused on a particular event, Sedarat decided to use personal experiences of family members and his adopted brotherhood of writers to show what a government will do to protect its self interests and power.

The difference between these two approaches, based on the reading seemed to be the intent. Phillips was looking to use the North Korea as a catalyst a trigger to move along the rest of the narrative. She did a wonderful job of reading this section though. Her pacing was well timed and her voice was able to build the tension of the scene without sounding overly hysterical or comatose. Sedarat seemed to be calling out Iran to call attention to the violence which has claimed so many of his loved ones lives and dignity and attempted to disrupt their power, if even temporarily, through his poetry. His reading was a mix of traditional poetry read to the audience, a performance piece which had the audience chanting Iran, as Sedarat marched about as if he was one of the Revolutionary Guards on parade. There was also his appropriation of Sufi’s poetic style which had the audience filling in the blanks at the end of couplets with a loved one’s name.

Not a bad start for 2010. This was easily one of the best readings since I’ve started Rutgers. Each reader displayed more than just a attention to the detail of craft. They possessed a love for this material that came across in their presentation and was dancing in the words when they read.

On Quitting Smoking

Two weeks now the poison has been out of my system. Physically I have no addiction anymore. What I am slowly re-learning is the physical quitting is easy, it’s the hooks in the mind that are hard to get rid of.

The most obvious sign is my poetry is gone. Writing and revising it goes nowhere. It’s not as if my mind is muddy and I can’t focus, it’s crystal clear, but empty…nada, nothing creative going on there. Words are empty of meaning and stare blankly at me. I see them, but what they say both explicit and implied avoids me. It’s fair to note I am losing my mind –sometimes it comes upon me gentle and other times the madness comes crashing in. The brain is working correctly, I wonder if this is true.

Rage is another fun side effect: directed towards myself and others. I was ready to drop out of graduate school, full of hatred at my inability to write. Good old self loathing. I find myself losing patience and yelling at everyone over everything. I want to put my hands through walls and bless them with my anger. I want to watch the world burn, and hold the trigger that causes it. I hate those who are able to do what I can’t. I am even starting to hate poetry and this blasted stress that consumes me over how poorly I write it.

It doesn’t leave you, the urge. It is like a constant ringing in the ears you gets use to it, until the volume increases. It calls to you and you feel it in every cell, at the base of your neck, in the soft tissue of your voice box. It is casual in its calling, it could care less if you come back there are others and they will be there. But it whispers when pressure appears “come back I can help”.

Can a person go psychotic from quitting? I feel the world fading away; it is becoming a dull little speck surrounded by my red anger. I am finding the extremes are tangible realities, you know which extremes I mean.

I only hope this passes.

The Making of a Journal

I’m tenacious. I do not give up on something, when I believe it is worth fighting for. Take for example Rutgers-Newark and its lack of a publication for literature. I knew I wanted to get a journal started for this program, hell I had the layout and basic tenants in mind for years. It was developed from scores of submitting poems and reading journals I just needed a chance to implement them. The problem was finding support for this endeavor in the program. Too many people told me to wait, it wasn’t worth it, that I couldn’t find students as passionate about it as me, there is no support for such a thing, etc, etc.

Screw that, I pursue what I believe is a good idea. I put together a proposal, a mini manifesto outlining what my vision for a journal was and sent it around. I was looking for others who shared the dream of a journal that went beyond aesthetics, schools of thought, and political groupings. I wanted to find others who believed that a journal should act as a form of community in which writers of all styles and beliefs are brought together under a common banner of literature. I want to remove the pretension the cliquish aura that surrounds too much writing today. Like Rutgers -Newark which acts as a nexus where a diversity of people gather under the goal of education, I wanted a journal to act as a gathering of writers dedicated to their desire for perfection.

It is amazing how ideas begin to grow. On their own and in groups, members of the program began to pursue this shared vision. This idea is growing fast even in its nascent form it holds more possibilities than most established journals out there. My dream is becoming a reality. Watch here for more, for the specifics and the madness, the tracking of a birth and watching it grow. Witness a community being born. This is just a tease –a bare calf appearing from behind a curtain. The real show is coming, and it will be televised.

To Form or Not to Form?

I use to believe that to be experimental, it meant breaking away from the use of forms. Today I would like to update that belief. I don’t believe that experimental poets are adverse to form poetry, quite the opposite; I believe that avant garde loves forms, just not the ones that are accepted at “time-tested poetic forms”.

Forms are nothing more than guidelines for a poem. In some way they determine the way the poem shall function. This can range from metrical counts, repetition of words/phrases, length, etc. Whatever the form is, the result is the same, a regulator that restricts the poem to certain pre-set guidelines. The Avant Garde makes use of forms as much as any New-formalist would; the difference of course lies in the forms being chosen. While Formalists look towards the past and the classics –Sonnets, Villanelles, and so on—the Avant Garde has created a wide range of new poetic forms.

These new forms attempt to break down the poetic hierarchy and barriers that separate individuals and society into neatly organized groups. These forms disrupt the lines between authorship, art and science, gender roles, and the list goes on (anything that has set up a dichotomy of control and repression becomes a good target). To achieve this, those who write experimental poetry often employ new types of rules/forms to help craft their poetry. Much like their “formal counterparts” experimental forms are often rigorous and stern rules that force the poet to write in a space that is pre-determined. The variations are numerous, but one common trait seems to thread through all of them, a desire to disrupt accepted beliefs regarding poetry.

I find myself now thinking this question: What is it that makes a poem experimental or a poet avant garde? Is it content of the poem, concept of the poet, form (many poets have written experimental sonnets)? Do you seek to be experimental, or is it something that you slowly develop over time? It seems that the distinction of what is poetry, let alone experimental poetry has become blurred. I am curious to hear what all of you think about this.

36th Annual New Year’s Day Marathon Benefit Reading

Though I haven’t keep my resolution to quit smoking yet, my other resolution to attend more poetry events began with a bang on Friday. I was able to make it out to NYC with my fellow grad students/friends Paula and Rimus to check out the Poetry Project’s New Year’s Day Poetry Marathon. The ten hour marathon featured some of the most well known and up and coming experimental poets from NYC and around the country along with performance actors and musicians. This event was simply amazing and well worth the 15 dollar cover charge. It also marked the first time I was at the legendary St. Mark’s church for a poetry reading.

To describe the reading clearer it is best to compare it to a living anthology. We weren’t presented with a vast body of work from each poet, instead it was like a conveyer belt of poets, each introduced and reading for ten minutes or so before the next poet came on stage. This approach kept the event moving fast and never got tedious for the audience. Instead much like a good movie you were lost in the event and before I knew it three hours had past and I had to head out to make the long journey back to Western NJ.

For those who know me, they know that I am fascinated with the advances, theories, and poems generated by an experimental/avant garde approach to poetry. For me experimental poetry is yet another to present a poem. Unlike the misconceptions many have of the avant garde –that it lacks form or talent or is just an excuse to utter non-sense –this type of writing makes use of strict and challenging rules that can be compared to more “traditional” poetic forms. I actually feel this type of poetry is also more rewarding to read, as it challenges the reader to work to understand the meaning of the poem, instead of being lead by the hand (a dangerous trait in more contemporary poetry). To see such a wide berth of poets presenting such a variety of poetic styles was so educational for me. I have spent this winter break reading lectures and essays that looked more closely at this newer approach to poetry and seeing these theories in practice gave me a better understanding of the approach to writing with these new forms. In another post I will look at my understanding of “experimental” poetry and try to shine some light on it not just for my own understanding, but hopefully for you dear readers as well.

Reading List for Winter Break

Now that Winter Break is in full swing I’ve found myself with an abundance of time to crack open the books which have been piling up on my shelves. It’s a chance for me to be able to read some of the more experimental poetry, poetics, and fiction that I’ve been gathering over the years. I would strongly urge you to read some if not all of these books.

[I, Afterlife] [Essay in Mourning Time] by Kristin Prevallet

I picked up this book after meeting Kristin at a reading. This collection is by the far the most experimental of the books I am reading right now. A mix of poetry and eulogy this collection is her attempt to explain and cope with her father’s suicide in 2000. The fragmented and dispersed verse captures a person dealing with the loss of a loved one and is inter-spliced with prose talking about her father as well as an essay attempting to contextualize the use of language in dealing with loss. Though comprised of several different forms, this collection is a potent and appropriate way to view and come to terms with death. Also unlike a lot of experimental poetry that looks towards varied forms and approaches to make the work “new”, this collection uses these techniques to capture all the stages of grieving that comes with a unexpected loss.

Exploits & Opinions of Dr. Faustroll, Pataphysician by Alfred Jarry

An author admired by the Surrealist whose Ubu plays shocked the world of theater. A mix of science, religion, philosophy all set to a novel that is part adventure, detective, and pastiche this book shows the life, death, and afterlife of Dr. Faustroll a Pataphysician. As much of a story as it is a exploration of Jarry’s invented Pataphysics –a science “of imaginary solutions, which symbolically attributes the properties of objects, described by their virtuality, to their lineaments". If you like seeing sacred cows slaughtered this is a book for you.

Selected Poems by Robert Creeley

Along with Charles Olson, Creeley pioneered Projected Verse in poetry. A way of writing that didn’t rely on punctuation to determine line length, but instead focused on the breath of the line. Each line of poetry corresponded to a certain length of breathing/reading of the poem –a revolutionary practice at the time. This book collects generous amounts of poems from all of his collections and shows the growth and development of his poetry. It is interesting to note that such an “experimental writer” in his early work heavy use of rhyme and meter, as well as more traditional subject matter (love poems).

The Room Where I Was Born by Brian Teare

This collection is a winner of the 2003 Brittingham Prize in Poetry. I picked up this book a few years ago after meeting Brian while he was interviewing for a teaching position at the University of Colorado. As a first collection this book surprises me with how powerful and lyrical it is. It is a book of the past that combines his experience growing up gay and coming to understand what that means in his world. These are very personal and very narrative and transverse from the truly brutal images to those that are beautiful and tender often within the same poem. It is an experience that captures a lyrical voice that is defining his world.

A Poetics by Charles Bernstein

LANGUAGE Poet and well versed writer of poetics. This collection of essays and interviews is Bernstein’s criticism on contemporary poetry. The majority of the book is his long essay “Artifice of Absorption” which looks at the dualities in poetry –a desire to be truthful vs. their artifice and how the poetry juggles between a being easily absorbed by the reader vs. its tendency to push the reader out of the poem. This collection should be on every poet’s shelf. Another view of poetry is presented here, one that makes a poem a device which challenges and rewards the reader, while looking towards newer methods on expressing itself.