[New-Poetry] Aphorisms

[James Cervantes]

Skip Fox's "Sure Shots" in _For  To_.
- Jim

On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 8:46 AM, Anny Ballardini
<anny.ballardini at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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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