[New-Poetry] Aphorisms

[Jeff Newberry]

Hi all,

I don't even know if I'm using the right terminology here, but I thought I'd
throw out some thoughts I've been having on aphorisms and poetic form.

I've been reading Jim Harrison's and Ted Kooser's *Braided Creek*, a kind of
conversation in poetry the two had via letters, I think.  Nonetheless, the
book is a series of very short (2-5 line usually) aphorisms.  I love the
quiet simplicity of the poems, the way they attempt to read the world via
images.  Reading *Braided Creek*, I thought immediately of Antonio Machado
(I have the Trueblood translation).  In that volume are several sequences of
proverbs/aphorisims.  I love Machado's aphorisms:  he sees mystery
everywhere he looks.  His suspicion of rationalistic reduction is, I think,
undercut by the sheer delight he takes in the natural world.  Still, I'm
more interested in the form of the poems than I am in Machado's subjects (or
Harrison's and Kooser's, for that matter).

Thinking about the aphorisim as a form, I reread some of Pound's writing on
Chinese ideograms, but Pound only takes me so far--given that he's
extrapolating from Fellenosa's notebook (I think), I'm not even sure how far
I can go with Pound, or how far he can take me, or even how much of his
reading of haiku is informed by his own quest to "make it new," so to
speak.

I'm wondering if you all have any thoughts on the aphorism as a form--how it
ticks, what it does, that kind of stuff.  If you have any suggestions for
critical reading, I'd appreciate that, as well.


Best,
Jeff Newberry
-- 
Blog:  http://museoffireblog.blogspot.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://wiz.cath.vt.edu/pipermail/new-poetry/attachments/20081116/0e37531a/attachment.html