[New-Poetry] Books a poet should own...

[Jason Quackenbush]

at the risk of pissing everybody off, what the does that Zwicky quote mean to those of you that this kind of thing appeals? It looks like complete 
garbage to me, no matter which way I parse it. A brief survey of the things that appear to me to be gibberish:
"phenomenological power"
Phenomenology is, loosely, an anti-scientific approach to the natural world founded on the lionization of the first person rather than the third 
person. It privileges metaphysics over physics and as such is largely speculative and depends on the investment of jargon with special meanings that 
generally divest philosophers working in the hegel-husserl-heidegger-derrida tradition of the ability to say anything meaningful whatsoever. Even, 
however, accepting the phenomenologist at his word and taking the inquiry to be investigating something real in its claim to be describing Being as it 
exists "before" or "behind" objects, is what phenomenological power then /is/ is the power to reveal this being? But then how does metaphor have any 
such power. Metaphor is a kind of relation between objects, it says "some object and some other object are interchangable in some way." If all that 
this "power" amounts to is the ability to isolate the essence that all things in common have in common, then i fail to see how the resulting 
phenomenological statement that "all things which are, in fact ARE." then it seems to be that Zwicky is making a big deal out of something so 
painfully tautological that it's a little bit embarassing she's bothering to say it.

Which is, of course, the terrible flaw of this kind of philosophy: the tendency of many if not most of its adherents to believe they are saying 
something profound just because they've managed to couch it in a lot of jargon.

For example, and Zwicky provides a perfect example in "Thisness." What is Thisness? She says it is the "lyric comprehension" of the tension between 
being and time. Well, what does that mean? Lyric means, basically, a sort of musicality of language. Comprehension implies that there is a 
Comprehender. But what the hell does "lyric comprehension" mean? and how does it derive from the awareness of the tension? So say I am aware of this 
tension, how then so I derive from that awareness "lyric comprehension?" Do I apply the power rule? Or is it more of a chemical process? I'd put my 
money on the latter, truth be told.

I'd go on but what she says about metaphor seems to be equally incomprehensible. I doubt truly that such a person has anything at all useful to say on 
the topic, or on the topic of Wisdom for that matter.

Wittgenstein once wrote that "Philosophy ought only to be written as a form of poetry." Marjorie Perloff asserted the converse in Wittgenstein's 
ladder, that really, poetry ought only to be written as a form of philosophy. I don't know whether I agree with her or not, but even if she is right, 
and a poem ought to be philosophical as much as a philosophical statement must be poetic, then this poem of Zwicky's quoted below is failing to be 
either poetry or philosophy.

JforJames at aol.com wrote:
> Wisdom & Metaphor
> by Jan Zwicky
> Gaspereau Press (Canada)
> http://www.gaspereau.com/1894031784.shtml
>  
> A large compendium of quotes by poets and philosophers and mathematicians
> centering on the topic of metaphor.  Zwicky responds to their assertions 
> with answers
> of her own. If you can find it, buy her earlier book _Lyric Philosophy_, 
> as well. Which
> has even more illustrations and musical notation than are in this book. 
> Wisdom &
> Metaphor will remind you of deep beauty of math...which most of us lost 
> sight of somewhere
> before our finals in Algebra II. Two quotes fromt her book...
>  
> The phenomenological power of both metaphor and /this/ness derives from 
> an awareness of an extreme tension between being and time. /This/ness is 
> the lyric comprehension of this tension; an instant of time opens to 
> embrace the resonance of all that is; time is present, but 
> suspended—held in balance. Metaphor, by contrast, is a from of domestic 
> understanding: wholeness overrides morality, but does not erase it. The 
> distinction of things remains the foundation of their resonant 
> connexion. In metaphor, gestalts glitter: those inflected by being and 
> those inflected by time, flashing back and forth over the hinge of what 
> is common.
> –Jan Zwicky, Wisdom and Metaphor, #67
>  
> To defend poetry means to defend a fundamental gift of human nature,
> that is, our capacity...to experience astonishment and to stop still in
> that astonishment for an extended moment or two.
>  
> --Adam Zagajewski, Another Beauty, translated by Clare Cavenaugh
>  
> Anny, that would be a good one for "Why poetry exists?" quote category. 
>  
> Finnegan
> 
> 
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