[New-Poetry] Deborah Garrison

[TheOldMole]

Well, we do look to literature to be our guide to the abyss that we hope 
to only glimpse in our lifetimes, and for that flash of the unknown, I'd 
go to Plath or Thomas sooner than Garrison or Judith Viorst. I wouldn't 
go to Plath for a parenting guide, but I probably wouldn't go to 
Garrison either.

David Graham wrote:
> It's easy to romanticize behavior and attitudes in poetry that we 
> would typically shy away from in life, isn't it?  In any case, there's 
> often a difference between what we like on the page and what we like 
> in "reality."  
>
> The challenges of domestic poetry like Garrison's are clear enough, I 
> think.  At some point a poem hewing close to mundane experience risks 
> becoming merely a mundane poem.  That said, I like the effort, and am 
> temperamentally in favor of what Garrison is up to, even if she 
> doesn't always score.  The poetry of extremity (e.g. Dylan Thomas, 
> Sylvia Plath) lost most of its glamor for me long ago.  
>
> Philip Larkin is typically sharp on this theme:
>
>
>  
> Poetry of Departures
>  
> Sometimes you hear, fifth-hand,
> As epitaph:
> He chucked up everything
> And just cleared off,
> And always the voice will sound
> Certain you approve
> This audacious, purifying,
> Elemental move.
>  
> And they are right, I think.
> We all hate home
> And having to be there:
> I detest my room,
> Its specially-chosen junk,
> The good books, the good bed,
> And my life, in perfect order:
> So to hear it said
>  
> He walked out on the whole crowd
> Leaves me flushed and stirred,
> Like Then she undid her dress
> Or Take that you bastard;
> Surely I can, if he did?
> And that helps me stay
> Sober and industrious,
> But I'd go today,
>  
> Yes, swagger the nut-strewn roads,
> Crouch in the fo'c'sle
> Stubbly with goodness, if
> It weren't so artificial,
> Such a deliberate step backwards
> To create an object:
> Books; china; a life
> Reprehensibly perfect.
>
> --Philip Larkin
>
>
> On 4/3/07 10:55 AM, "Suzanne Burns" <queenmouse at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>     On 4/1/07, *Linda Sue Grimes* <suelin7184 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>         I'll take the "sweet one" over the "strange mother" even in
>         writing.  Sorry,
>         Emily--your preference for the bi-polar goddess is weird and a tad
>         unbelievable. (No pun intended.)
>
>
>     Call me weird then.  I will always vote for the strange mother--
>     and yes even the bi-polar goddess, especially in art and writing.
>      Sweet ones with their doilies and cookies-- feh.  I'll eat the
>     cookies but I don't want to read their poems.
>
>     Suzanne
>      
>
>
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     _______________________________________________
>     New-Poetry mailing list
>     New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
>     http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>
>
>
>
> ====================================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu
> Home Page:
> http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/index.html
> Poetry Library:
> http://www.ripon.edu/academics/faculty/GrahamD/poetrylib.html
> ====================================================
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> New-Poetry mailing list
> New-Poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/new-poetry
>   

-- 
Tad Richards
http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/