[New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count

Tue Jul 1 13:56:29 EDT 2008

Yes, it is true for all poetry.  I mentioned the social and political
only because that was the subject of the comment.  I glaze and fade at
religious poetry, too, and also all "...ism" poetry, and poems about
Uncle Bob, and poems about cormorants, and...  Unless--again--the poem
itself is good.  I have no religious inclinations but I can still get
woozy reading Hopkins--because of the writing.  On the other hand, I
once heard a woman read a poem about her dead husband.  By the end she
was weeping openly, but while the woman's grief was genuine and
powerful, the poem was bad.

John Jeffrey

--- On Tue, 7/1/08, Roger Day <rog3r.day at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Roger Day <rog3r.day at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count
To: jjeffreymail at yahoo.com, "NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &, Views" <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
Date: Tuesday, July 1, 2008, 1:57 AM

What you say is certainly something to guard against, but isn't it a
general statement for all poetry? I could say the same about history
or religion. All because one writes in a religious vein, the poets
religious convictions doesn't give the poem more gravitas. All because
one writes about the death of a close one, doesn't make it poetry. All
too often, I read poems by tyros who think that just transcribing
their broken heart, makes it  poem.

"all too often"

So why just politics? Maybe it's the politics that you don't like?
Expanding the lower order errors upwards just for politics.

I think the debate in this thread would be enriched if people had read
the original book and commented on that.

Roger

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 3:21 AM, John Jeffrey <jjeffreymail at yahoo.com>
wrote:
> jforjames wrote: "The larger issue is Why is i a poet can't weigh
into
> social and political issues? And who gets to say this poet has less cred
> than this one?"
>
> For me, the issue isn't that poets can't weigh in on social and
political
> issues, it's just that, usually, the poems are so numbingly weak.  Too
often
> the poets rely on their belief that the issue and--more importantly (to
> them, at least)--their political take on the issue gives the poem its
> gravitas.  It doesn't.  An image can.  The writing can.  Insight can. 
But a
> political point of view cannot.
>
> John Jeffrey
>
>
> --- On Mon, 6/30/08, jforjames at aol.com <jforjames at aol.com> wrote:
>
> From: jforjames at aol.com <jforjames at aol.com>
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count
> To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> Date: Monday, June 30, 2008, 9:39 PM
>
> I apologize for the 'claque' bit. I'm a listserv type...and
subbed to 4, so
> I'll
> pass on your invitation..but,
> a 'coffee table book'?...come on. When a serious
artist/photographer
> and poet collaborate, do you want them to produce the thing
> in mimeo? I happened to hear Wright talk at length on _One Big
> Self_ at this symposium on the collaboration of poets and artists
> making books together...
> http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/metaphor/Participants.html
> If you want to call it, as a slight, an 'art book', I might
disagree
> but I'd see where you were coming from.
>
> She reads from the text here:
> http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Wright.html
> Let the cards play themselves, we say in poker.
>
> The larger issue is Why is i a poet can't weigh into social and
political
> issues? And who gets to say this poet has less cred than this one?
> Finnegan
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rsgwynn1 at cs.com
> To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
> Sent: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 10:34 pm
> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] CD Wright's body count
>
> In a message dated 6/29/2008 7:17:31 PM Central Daylight Time,
> JforJames at aol.com writes:
>
> In a message dated 6/26/2008 12:03:30 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
> Rsgwynn1 at cs.com writes:
>
> http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/ubbhtml/Forum15/HTML/000289.html
>
>
> I seems like the claque concurs. But I don't see the evidence that
'poetry
> of witness' is by nature flawed?
> I think you are uncomfortable with socio-political poetry. Many are. But
> C.D. Wright, if nothing else, doesn't seem a casual observer recasting
> newsclippings into poetry.
> Finnegan
>
>
> Eratosphere is an open forum, James, just like this one.  You're free
to
> post your opinions there, as I am here.
>
> Sam
>
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"I began to warm and chill
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