[New-Poetry] Bob's Greatest Hits and the breadth and depth ofPudding

[Bob Grumman]

Yes, good to join you, Al and Bill.  (And thanks, Gregory, for the 
encouraging words--not the first such you've sent my way.)  I knew Pudding 
House was well-thought-of and had published some good stuff, but am pleased 
to be finding out I'd been under-rating them.

Hey, now we have to get James to organize a reading in that Connecticut 
college he's at for New-Poetry Pudding Housers!

--Bob


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <editor at eratiopostmodernpoetry.com>
To: <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
Sent: Thursday, September 14, 2006 6:18 PM
Subject: [New-Poetry] Bob's Greatest Hits and the breadth and depth 
ofPudding


> Here are three reviews I wrote on the subject of Pudding Magazine and
> Jennifer Bosveld.  One of these appeared in my micro zine, Meat Epoch, and
> the other two in, I think, Small Press Review.  (I wrote these a while 
> ago, so
> please be kind. . . .)
>
> I am really very happy for you, Bob.  And to you other guys, Al and Bill, 
> I'm
> pleased to meet you and good for you!  Far out!
>
>
> PUDDING MAGAZINE:  The International Journal of Applied Poetry
> (#24, 1994) Pudding House Publications.  74pp.  $6.75.  ($15.75, for 3
> issues.)  ISSN:  0196-5913
>
> There is an aura surrounding Pudding Magazine, an aura in part cast by the
> published viewpoints and practical to-dos of its editor, Ms. Jennifer 
> Bosveld,
> and in part cast by its longevity, a longevity nourished by the caliber 
> and
> stylistic diversity of its contributors.  For Ms. Bosveld's part it is 
> foremost her
> perseverance-it is her faith in and commitment to poetic expression, and 
> to
> poetic expression as cure.  But while her commitment is unaffected, her 
> faith
> is not naïve.  Let us define cure as the realization and cultivation of 
> "poetic
> sensitivities," the insight "to identify challenges and solutions at 
> significant
> moments in our lives."  This grants a purpose to poetic expression that
> extends beyond the sheer aesthetic; this psychology allows that through
> poetic expression-that is, generally speaking, through the artistic, the
> deliberate bringing together into words of one's personal and distinctive
> feelings and impressions and gone-throughs accrued via direct life
> experience-one may, if not defeat adversity, nevertheless make of that
> adversity such as can be gainful, tolerable, and perhaps, eventually, the
> liberating jewel, for both writer (in the form of a catharsis, a relief 
> from
> tension, the breaking of inhibition, self awareness, a knowledge or lesson
> obtained, there is generally some hygienic merit) and reader respectively.
> Thusly, then, though not exclusively, does Ms. Bosveld exercise her 
> privilege
> as editor.
> Being chief editor of an established and time- & trial-honed small
> magazine, Ms. Bosveld is at once privileged and fated to preview hundreds 
> of
> manuscripts, consequently acquiring for herself an almost confidential
> knowledge of the latest, the best, the worst, the most promising and the
> most obtuse of our poetic afflatus.  This confidential knowledge stands
> beside her privilege; it is as much her honor-her distinguished 
> opportunity-
> as it is her forte.  The poems she has selected for Pudding #24 have
> recognizable points in common:  There is, perhaps above all, a frank
> correspondence to the workaday world, to the actual (if not familiar) 
> lived
> realities of towns and cities, farms and classrooms, in kitchens and in 
> cars,
> and in vivid dislocative* narrative; these are lives we can recognize and
> appreciate; conditions and situations we can understand and, maybe, 
> identify
> with.  The imagery is pictorial and aural and concrete, the setting is 
> seen as
> well as heard, the poem has local color, has ambience, these poets have 
> ears.
> And in these narratives, the sentiments and delicacy of feelings and
> emotional (and ideational) appeals are appropriate-so that they have a
> versatility; we are susceptible to them and they belong to us all. 
> Stylistically,
> their diversity is for the most part a matter of tone or voice (which is 
> not to
> say a prime specimen of a particular literary art will be of course 
> excluded).
> This correspondence, and concrete imagery, are the primary characteristics 
> of
> realism; however realism also treats us to symbols and archetypes and to a
> moral and psychological depth; realism can be "unsophisticatedly" folksy 
> and
> "naïve," as well as stylized or refined to a "high" sophistication. 
> Turning
> adversity, even the workaday, into poetic expression can result in an 
> intensely
> personal confessional poetry (a sort of special pleading, say, for 
> forgiveness
> or re-acceptance, even an exhibitionism), but in its most accessible and
> useful transfiguration (and indeed, what seems to appeal to Ms. Bosveld
> most), something approaching realism, or the extra-personal, if you will, 
> may
> be the desired effect-along with some sense of acceptance, if not total
> overcoming.
> All works of art are in a sense (most likely, unintentional) personal
> documents, but not all personal documents are strictly speaking works of 
> art.
> The idea of an "applied poetry" also involves-beyond the disclosure of
> poignant reflections of human thought and feeling-the considerations of
> example and service.  Outside of Pudding Magazine, two works, or
> documents, come into mind:  Autobiography of a Schizophrenic Girl,
> presented by Marguerite Sechehaye, and Mars, by the pseudonymous Fritz
> Zorn.  It is questionable, whether either of these documents (both extreme
> cases) can pass for a work of art (notwithstanding passages of 
> extraordinary
> flight), but they are rich in frank and exacting disposition, description 
> and
> disclosure, rich in raw self-analysis and remarkable psychological acuity, 
> and
> both writers were able to express themselves and adapt themselves to their
> intention; both works are specimens of the applied.  The assumption that
> someone has something to say and would benefit from saying it, is the 
> basis
> underlying applied poetry.  The realization and cultivation of the 
> expressive
> and adaptive aspects of such are paramount goals for the instructor of an
> applied poetry program.  These considerations are clearly acknowledged and
> surpassed by Ms. Bosveld, who has devoted much thought and scholarship to
> the matter, here and in her sourcebook, Topics for Getting in Touch, now 
> in
> its tenth edition.
>
> *Dislocation refers to narrated events, intentions, etc., less the benefit 
> of
> depictive locale, usually but not limited to imaginary events.
>
> ***
> Pudding Magazine: The International Journal of Applied Poetry #32, Dec.,
> 1996.
> Edited by Jennifer Bosveld.  3 / yr; 80 pp.  Pudding House Publications.
> $18.95 / yr, $6.95 / copy.
>
>
> Pudding Magazine is going strong approaching the close of its second
> decade.  Founding publisher and editor, Jennifer Bosveld, has with gifted
> sensibilities and model resolve kept the proceedings on a steady course,
> veering only towards improvement.  While keeping to the magazine's express
> purpose, the foundation, demonstration and promotion of applied poetry (a
> term originated by Bosveld to signify the beneficial role the creative 
> process
> can play in healing, learning, working and integrating with society), 
> there is
> also a liberal commitment to bringing forth fine contemporary and
> experimental writing.  (It's clear that at Pudding the term experimental 
> is not
> used as an apology for bad writing; rather, here it means writing that 
> does
> not restrict itself to familiar plays of language, writing that 
> purposefully
> departs from traditional models.)  With applied poetry, the foremost
> objective, it seems, is to remove task-attitude constraints which can
> otherwise control production; the purpose is to keepsafe the writer's
> subjectivity while helping him become much less self-conscious.  And when
> shared, the turning points in a life are exposed to view, and this can 
> revise a
> reader's perceptions and sensitivities.  Thus Pudding is of service both 
> to
> writers and to readers.  There is also a commitment to Virtual Journalism
> (another term originated by Bosveld), which is concerned not with the
> reportage only but the transmutation of experience into art, but while 
> this
> may sound pretty familiar, it's actually quite a specialized art form.
>
> Featured in #32 is Willie Abraham Howard, Jr., and from his excerpted
> letters and poetry it's clear he does not suffer from dictaphobia, he 
> speaks
> his heart with a vividness and penetration.  This is just the sort of 
> writer
> Bosveld is pleased to discover.  Mr. Howard's place is Southern-urban, or 
> else
> any black enclave just outside or enclosed inside a city.  Howard is 
> shrewd
> and to a degree worldly-minded, but he is not wearied or cynical; he has
> learned, and probably early on, to keep a psychological distance, and this 
> is
> key to his style of portraiture-when his feelings enter the narrative, it 
> is not
> to pass judgment, but to register his affections.  But Howard has a secret
> weapon; he has the ability to translate meaning into value, and value into
> poetry.  (The author's expression need not only take the form of a 
> shriek.)  In
> the poems presented here, we see the contrast between the poet's ideal and
> his reality.  In "Rockbitch In Vine City," the slang phrases are 
> disturbing, but
> still they are only language; with minimum detail Howard tells of a woman
> prone to prison and drug abuse, yet despite her wrecked life there remains
> something inviolable about her; she is still a human being.
>
> All the writing in Pudding has a direct connection to some or other lived
> experience; depending on the style of the author, this connection can be
> more or less concrete.  And as in Ralph S. Coleman's short story, "Off the
> Main Road," the connection can take the form of a revelation, an awakening
> either to or out of a self-deception.  Ben Miller's "Tiny Tales of Mayhem,
> Madness and Murder" is something of a ringer-it's typical of Bosveld to
> include a piece that is so refreshingly unusual yet still suits her 
> purpose.
> These really are tiny tales, excerpts from a longer work; brief 
> paragraphs,
> each one with a well wrought twist.  Miller may well remind the reader of
> Calvino; we cannot possibly foretell the last sentence or word but when we
> read it we are treated to the ah-hah effect.  Because of the remarkable
> quantity of submissions received, Pudding is able to publish three big 
> issues
> a year, and submissions meet with an amazingly efficient turn-around time
> (manuscripts are read the day received; this is more than a practicality, 
> this is
> a courtesy to the authors, and one worthy of emulation).  It shouldn't be 
> long
> before The Best American Poetry acknowledges Pudding with their selection.
> Always begin with a SASE for guidelines.
>
> ***
> Pudding Magazine:
> The International Journal of Applied Poetry
> #40, Spring 2000.
> Edited by Jennifer Bosveld.  66 pp.
> Pudding House Publications.
> $18.95 / 3 issues, $7.95 / copy.
>
> http://www.puddinghouse.com
>
>
> Pudding's motto reads in part, Poetry Applied to Intentional Living.  The 
> idea,
> really the principle, of "intentional living" has been with me a long 
> time, even
> before I found proof of it in Rilke, in Shotetsu, and in Thoreau.  It has 
> more
> than anything else informed my writing, and, just as importantly, my 
> reading,
> of poetry.  For I conceive of the poem to be a document, behind which 
> there
> lies a life, a person, a history.  The poem is, in a sense, a 
> constellation of
> sensibilities, drawn from the personal night sky of the poet-and 
> sometimes,
> should the stars be so aligned, we can make out the outline of an 
> archetype.
>
> Now the enjoyment of poetry is not only a matter of these words, these
> images, this particular circumstance, the enjoyment is in where the poem
> takes you.  Reading Greg Kosmicki's "Everything Has A Life of Its Own," 
> about
> a slight but significant conversation between father and son, I was taken 
> to
> remember a man I'd met at a retirement party.  He asked me what I'd been
> doing, I told him I was a student, and then he asked me what I loved, and 
> I
> told him I loved poetry.  The man then took out his wallet, and took out 
> this
> old piece of cloth that was folded so to fit inside, and he said that this 
> was
> from his child's blanket, and then he held it close and said, This is a 
> poem.  I
> reread Kosmicki's poem, and the others in the set he has published here, 
> as
> this issues's featured poet, and they were all equally rewarding.
>
> Rewarding too is "Ambivalences of Color," a short slice of life by Robert
> T. Sorrells, and John Bennett's "Take the 'A' Train," which can be 
> considered a
> companion piece to the recently published Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.
> It's often said that a magazine reflects the sensibilities of its editor, 
> I think
> that's true, and we can be grateful for Jennifer Bosveld, whose 
> sensibilities
> include a commitment to people, to poetry, and to intentional living.
>
>
> --Gregory Vincent St. Thomasino
>
>
>
> http://www.laurahird.com/showcase/gregorythomasino.html
>
> http://eratio.blogspot.com/
>
> http://thepostmodernromantic.blogspot.com/
>
>
> E·
>
> _______________________________________________
> New-Poetry mailing list
> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>
>