[New-Poetry] Collins on clarity

[Anny Ballardini]

Clear as the sun. We are a step backwards, I just pushed it forward, sorry for that.
  From: jforjames at aol.com 
  Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 3:52 PM


  Anny, by going after Collins' remark I hope I didn't imply that I was against clarity or coherence. I'm not. Not in poetry or any other sphere...esp. the philosophical. I was irked that Collins seemed to indicate that the great strength of his poetry is clarity and that his work was somehow a corrective to the wayward slide in poetry toward the difficult and obscure. You only have to read the journals and new books coming out to see that there is plenty of fragmentary/disjunctive/vague poetry being produced. It's the fashion among many in post-avant camp. At the same time there is, and has been, much good poetry being produced that is as clear as Collins. Collins' strengths, and his evident success in attracting a large readership and even some new converts to poetry, lie in features other than clarity.
  Finnegan

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Anny Ballardini <anny.ballardini at tin.it>
  Bcc: jforjames at aol.com
  Sent: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 8:54 am
  Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Collins on clarity


  I do not know if I agree with James (that would be the very first time...)
  we know from history that coherence is the winning card starting from Gorgias (see his rhetorical writing on Helen of Troy) up to the best lawyers /teachers /scientists, not to mention archeologists (greatest fiction writers) /priests and nuns /generals. What makes sense is what makes truth, our knowledge is based on coherence. If I am able to write in a cohesive way that red becomes blue and they are yellow, everybody will believe it to be true. 
  Deconstruction is here to help but institutions are too heavy to dismantle before sunset.
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