[New-Poetry] Bernadette Mayer

[Skip Fox]

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Bob Grumman
Sent: Wednesday, August 08, 2007 3:41 PM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Bernadette Mayer

 

I hesitated before calling her a first generation language poet.  I called
her that, finally, because I tend to think anyone in the L=A=N=A=U=G=E book
is a first generation language poet.  On the other hand, I KNOW that some
non-language poets had something in that book.

 

--Bob

 

On second thought, I might well be wrong to say that most would id her as NY
School. Language Poetry is probably the more common designation. (But many
language poets tried to retrospectively enlist earlier writers like Creeley,
so . . .) I know that many others feel her more aligned with Berrigan and
Notley than Bernstein et al., but I think you’re right, the identification
with Language is strong.  But it’s only classification. She, as Creeley,
plays with the nature of language the referential and emphases the
materiality of language, but is also willing to create loud abstract
expressionist canvases of everyday language like Berrigan, mixing the sacred
and profane, playing naïf, etc.

 

Maybe it’s simply that I love the NY School and Mayer, so when I have a
choice of where to place her in my mind . . . .

 

(Which is not of course to say I dislike Language Poetry . . . I like it
very much at times and have learned a lot from it.)

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