[New-Poetry] remembering Kunitz

[Mark Weiss]

Poewts House is a wonder. He also left it some 
wonderful artwork, including a few Gustons.

At 10:41 AM 11/29/2010, you wrote:
>Kunitz founded Poets House--
>--
>Founded in 1985 by poet 
><http://poetshouse.org/stanley.htm>Stanley 
>Kunitz and arts administrator Elizabeth Kray, 
>Poets House has created a home for all who read 
>and write poetry. From 1990 to 2007 that home 
>was located in an intimate loft at 72 Spring 
>Street in Soho. As rent increases began to make 
>Soho an impractical location, Poets House was 
>fortunate to be designated by the Battery Park 
>City Authority as a rent-free tenant in a new 
>building on the banks of the Hudson River. In 
>the summer of 2009, Poets House moved to its 
>permanent home at 
><http://poetshouse.org/newsbpc92007.htm>10 River 
>Terrace in Battery Park City and opened to the public on September 25, 2009.
>
>Throughout its transformations, the heart of 
>Poets House has remained its poetry 
><http://poetshouse.org/library.htm>collection. 
>With over 50,000 volumes of poetry—including 
>books, journals, chapbooks, audio and videoo 
>tapes, and digital media—our collection is among 
>the most comprehhensive, open-access collections 
>of poetry in the United States and is the 
>foundation for all our programs and services.
>--
>Perhaps some of that 'other material' has 
>slipped into its collection over time.
>
>Kunitz wrote some good poems. He helped a lot of 
>poets over his long career. He was certainly 
>mainstream. And connected to establishment. (He 
>was judge of Yale Younger Poets Series for many years.)
>
>Compared to someone like Anthony Hecht, say, 
>Gerald Stern is a 'wildman' of poetry. Compared 
>to Bukowski, not so much. James Tate is wild in 
>a completely different way than Stern. So it's 
>all a matter of context, and range within that context.
>
>I spent 4 hours with Kunitz once, on a drive up 
>from NYC to a CT reading, and stopping for lunch 
>at Peruvian restaurant in Danbury. (His taste in 
>food was not too narrow.) From our free-wheeling 
>conversation (I was driving carefully), I'd say 
>he knew more than his share about poetry. And I 
>felt I was only scratching the surface, and doing so rather late in his life.
>
>Who is the mythical literary figure who manages 
>to know all poets/poetries (all the compass 
>points), is well-versed in all schools and 
>sub-genres, and who loves, reads, and promotes 
>them all with equal gusto? I don't know that person. Is he/she is on this list?
>
>Finnegan
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Weiss <junction at earthlink.net>
>To: NewPoetry List <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
>Sent: Mon, Nov 29, 2010 8:56 am
>Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] remembering Kunitz
>
>I knew him slightly, and many of my friends knew 
>him a lot better than that. Take my word for it.
>
>At 06:12 AM 11/29/2010, you wrote:
>>On 11/28/2010 11:54 PM, Mark Weiss wrote:
>>>He was also well aware of the poetry he chose 
>>>not to acknowledge. As was his right.
>>
>>How do we know that?  If his remark about Stern 
>>was about Stern as a poet, he certainly wasn't 
>>aware of very much of the poetry continuum.
>>
>>--Bob
>>_______________________________________________
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>
>
>New from Chax Press: Mark Weiss, As Landscape.
>$16.  Order from 
><http://www.chax.org/poets/weiss.htm>http://www.chax.org/poets/weiss.htm
>
>
>"What a beautiful set of circumstances! What a 
>lovely concatenation of particulars. Here is the 
>poet alive in every sense of the word, and 
>through every one of his senses. Instead of 
>missing a beat or a part, Weiss’ fragments are 
>like Chekhov’s short stories­the more that 
>gets left out, the more they seem to contain
 
>One can hear echoess from all the various 
>ancestors...[but] the voice, at its center, its 
>core, is pure Mark Weiss. His use of the 
>fragment is both elegant and bafflingly clear, a 
>pure musical threnody
[it] opens a window, not 
>only innto a mind, but a person, a personality, 
>this human figure at the emotional center of the poem."
>
>M.G. Stephens, in Jacket. 
><http://jacketmagazine.com/40/r-weiss-rb-stephens.shtml>http://jacketmagazine.com/40/r-weiss-rb-stephens.shtml
>
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>
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New from Chax Press: Mark Weiss, As Landscape.
$16.  Order from http://www.chax.org/poets/weiss.htm


"What a beautiful set of circumstances! What a 
lovely concatenation of particulars. Here is the 
poet alive in every sense of the word, and 
through every one of his senses. Instead of 
missing a beat or a part, Weiss’ fragments are 
like Chekhov’s short stories­the more that gets 
left out, the more they seem to contain
 One can 
hear echoes from all the various 
ancestors...[but] the voice, at its center, its 
core, is pure Mark Weiss. His use of the fragment 
is both elegant and bafflingly clear, a pure 
musical threnody
[it] opens a window, not only 
into a mind, but a person, a personality, this 
human figure at the emotional center of the poem."

M.G. Stephens, in Jacket. 
http://jacketmagazine.com/40/r-weiss-rb-stephens.shtml
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