[New-Poetry] Aphorisms

[Anny Ballardini]

James Finnegan's Ursprache:
http://ursprache.blogspot.com/



On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 4:17 PM, Jeff Newberry <jeff.newberry at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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
>
>
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>


-- 
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
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