[New-Poetry] Jose Garcia Villa

[David Bircumshaw]

I've never entirely sure about Villa' 'comma poems', I think they make a strategy of tactic, as it were, that is to say they overstretch a localised effect. On the other hand, there are some poems of his that I like, such as that one about 'inviting a tiger for the weekend, eye of Blake'.

best


David Bircumshaw
Website: http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Anny Ballardini 
  To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp,Views 
  Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 9:19 AM
  Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Jose Garcia Villa


  It is disturbing, and since he is referring to Seurat, maybe a dot - full stop - might have been better. On the other hand the same impressionists were wildly criticized when they first appeared.


   
  On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 10:18 PM, David Graham <grahamd at ripon.edu> wrote:

    Interesting.  Here's a snippet from the Wikipedia page on Villa:


    Writing style

    Villa described his use of commas after every word as similar to "Seurat's
    architectonic and measured pointillism‹where the points of color are
    themselves the medium as well as the technique of statement". This unusual
    style forces the reader to pause after every word, slowing the pace of the
    poem resulting to what Villa calls "a lineal pace of dignity and movement".
    An example of Villa's "comma poems" can be found in an excerpt of his work
    #114:

    ³    In, my, undream, of, death,
    I, unspoke, the, Word.
    Since, nobody, had, dared,
    With, my, own, breath,
    I, broke, the, cord!
    ---------------------------



    On 4/23/09 11:04 AM, "lattaj at umich.edu" <lattaj at umich.edu> wrote:

    > Quoting David Graham <grahamd at ripon.edu>:
    >
    >
    >>
    >> I remember pulling a book off the library shelf once when I was in college.
    >> The gimmick was that the poet put a comma after every word, I suppose to
    >> make some point about language, I don't know.   Emphasizing the materiality
    >> of words?  It was extremely irksome reading, in any event, and I never
    >> finished the book.  But *someone* had found that book worthy, had gone to
    >> the trouble and expense to publish it, and the library had in turn
    >> purchased, catalogued, and preserved it.
    >>
    >> Even at age 18, however, it was obvious to me that no amount of promotion
    >> would make such a book last.   As of course it hasn't, and I long ago forgot
    >> the author's name.
    >>
    >
    > David,
    >
    > Most likely José Garcia Villa (1914-1997), born in the Philippines,
    > who invented the "comma poem," and, though I don't know much about
    > him, apparently not by any means a crank, or a lightweight.
    >
    > John
    >
    > _______________________________________________
    >


    ====================================================
    David Graham
    grahamd at ripon.edu
    Home Page:
    http://web.mac.com/drjazz/

    Poetry Library:
    http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
    ====================================================




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  I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing star! 




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