[New-Poetry] Forrest Gander (Again)

[Jeff Newberry]

I'm not picking a fight here--curious that I feel the need to add this
caveat when I disagree with somebody . . .

Anyway, I dont' think of Forrest Gander as a gaseous writer.  I've read a
good bit of the book of essays that the quotation in question comes from (*A
Faithful Existence*)*.*  He seems to me a writer imminently connected to
the natural world; his poetry stems from his connection with the land.  I've
just finished reading *Eye Against Eye, *which includes a wonderful sequence
of poems written after some landscape photography by Sally Mann.  I don't
have the book right here in front of me, but I was impressed with it.  I'd
never read anything by Forrest Gander before; I'd heard of him, but I knew
that he published with New Directions that that my aesthetic was somewhat
different than his.  Frankly, I didn't think that I'd like his work.

However, I read him and I did really enjoy it.  I've just gotten
copies of *Science
& Steepleflower* and *Deeds of Utmost Kindess*.  So far, I'm not liking them
as much as I do Eye Against Eye, but I find the poems fascinating (if not
somewhat opaque at places).

All of this to say that I didn't think the quotation I posted was any more
"gaseous" or elevated than any number of things one could say about poetry.

Cheers,

Jeff Newberry


On 5/1/06, Paul Lake <paul.lake at mail.atu.edu> wrote:
>
> On 5/1/06 1:05 PM, "DICK at pkmfgvm4.vnet.ibm.com" <
> DICK at pkmfgvm4.vnet.ibm.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Uncomfortable with elevated language and thoughts, fellas?
>
> Only if the elevation is a result of gaseousness.
>
> _______________________________________________
> New-Poetry mailing list
> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>



--
"Life is doubt, and faith without doubt is nothing but death."
                                                   --Miguel de Unamuno

Blog:  http://museoffireblog.blogspot.com/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20060501/e3928b09/attachment.html