Yesterday I stumbled along working on two poems. By evening I had my fill of both. Put them away, my mind away.... Today is another day. One poem has taken shape nicely. The other remains on the back burner- warm in my thoughts but no real action on it yet.
Perhaps I will take it out and play with it a while later. Perhaps not.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Saturday, January 29, 2005
Marilyn Kallet
Robert Stewart, editor of New Letters introduced Marilyn Kallet Thursday night as a writer who's poems "wake you up" a quality that he stresses all poems should do.
Kallet, who has been the director of the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, is also the author of a dozen or so poetry books. She was in Kansas City as one of the featured readers at this years Midwest Poet series.
Marilyn Kallet was a lot of things I did not expect, but she was not disappointing. I expected what I suppose was a southern lady. She was born in Montgomery, Alabama. While there was evidence of southern roots, Ms. Kallet is indeed a well traveled woman who's poetic work is not limited by her southern experience.
Her readings were much more akin to performance. Working without text, but not overtly dramatic. There was a comfortable level to her recitations. She is soft spoken, pleasurably so and fortunately the sound system and acoustics were good.
I was not particularly aware of Kallet's Jewish heritage prior to the event and somewhat surprised by the influence it has on her work. She presented a number of holocaust related works which were quite appropriate with the date (anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz)
but what I found most enjoyable about her was the ability she possesses to mix extremely serious poetic commentary with wit and humor. I too often write to those extremes and I like that quality in other poets.
Her reading was really quite unlike others I have experienced. She was so good with her delivery I did indeed feel a disconnect from the poetry itself. Not really from her or her presentation but certainly from the written word.
I intend to review here her book, How To Get Heat Without Fire after I have finished reading it three times. Perhaps then I will feel the total connection with her word.
Kallet, who has been the director of the creative writing program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, is also the author of a dozen or so poetry books. She was in Kansas City as one of the featured readers at this years Midwest Poet series.
Marilyn Kallet was a lot of things I did not expect, but she was not disappointing. I expected what I suppose was a southern lady. She was born in Montgomery, Alabama. While there was evidence of southern roots, Ms. Kallet is indeed a well traveled woman who's poetic work is not limited by her southern experience.
Her readings were much more akin to performance. Working without text, but not overtly dramatic. There was a comfortable level to her recitations. She is soft spoken, pleasurably so and fortunately the sound system and acoustics were good.
I was not particularly aware of Kallet's Jewish heritage prior to the event and somewhat surprised by the influence it has on her work. She presented a number of holocaust related works which were quite appropriate with the date (anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz)
but what I found most enjoyable about her was the ability she possesses to mix extremely serious poetic commentary with wit and humor. I too often write to those extremes and I like that quality in other poets.
Her reading was really quite unlike others I have experienced. She was so good with her delivery I did indeed feel a disconnect from the poetry itself. Not really from her or her presentation but certainly from the written word.
I intend to review here her book, How To Get Heat Without Fire after I have finished reading it three times. Perhaps then I will feel the total connection with her word.
Friday, January 28, 2005
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Tonight, I will be the poet consumer....
I'm going to hear Marilyn Kallet tonight at Rockhurst College. I'm pretty excited about it. There was a really nice piece in the Kansas City Star - art/literary section this past Sunday about her. Plus, I have it on good authority from a friend of Jilly's that she is worth hearing.
Information on Marilyn Kallet
Information on Marilyn Kallet
Wednesday, January 26, 2005
A Poem As A Private Event
Today, I read an essay by David Groff on The Peril of the Poetry Reading. He tackles the issue of the value of such readings to poetry itself and raises some interesting points.
Ironically it was just last night that I explained to another poet how reading her work in print adds a dimension that hearing it read in a group setting cannot provide. As I said that, I had to think about my views on poetry readings. I am in fact a fan of readings. I have found them positive experiences both as a poet and as a consumer of poetic works. There is a very important place in the literary world for public readings. At least that is the view I have held and I am not swaying from that position.
Groff suggests that "even if a poem takes on a fresh life when it's delivered in the voice of its maker, it loses more than it gains." He quotes the poet Richard Howard from a keynote address at the 1996 PEN Literary Awards where he said, "We have failed...to make poetry known; we have merely made it public. If we are to save poetry, which means if we are to savor it, we must restore poetry to that status of seclusion and even secrecy that characterizes our authentic pleasures and identifies only our intimately valued actions." Groff adds, (Howard sees) "... a poem as an intimate act of communication and not an occasion for a group grope."
I'm not sure that I agree with Groff that it loses more than it gains, but there is a difference and I think it is valid to question if the trade off is beneficial in the end. I do like Richard Howard's view that a poem is an very intimate communication. I believe the fact that each of us bring our own life prospectives to a printed page of poetry and therein some transformation occurs. That transformation is very personal. It has the readers soul imprinted upon it. Two readers are not necessarily going to see or get the same value from the same poem.
There is the physical aspect of poetry on a page. The line breaks. The way the poem fills out the white void that is a page before the poem is created. Much of poetry, though not all is about form. And I will remind you that though literary in construction, poetry is very much about images. Expressing place. It is also in some respects a visual art. David Groff's essay has indeed called into question the loss of a poem's form when read in public. It is an undeniable fact that in some poems this is of significant value. The eyes and mind are able to do something that the ears and mind cannot replicate.
I personally enjoy hearing poets read their own work. I enjoy poets reading other people's work. But I have heard poems and later read them to find I saw them in a quite different view. I will still do public readings. I will continue to attend public readings. What this essay has caused me to consider however, is just how important it is for each of us to stress reading poems personally. David Groff considers this the "ultimate act of poetic integrity... to take the poem home."
Ironically it was just last night that I explained to another poet how reading her work in print adds a dimension that hearing it read in a group setting cannot provide. As I said that, I had to think about my views on poetry readings. I am in fact a fan of readings. I have found them positive experiences both as a poet and as a consumer of poetic works. There is a very important place in the literary world for public readings. At least that is the view I have held and I am not swaying from that position.
Groff suggests that "even if a poem takes on a fresh life when it's delivered in the voice of its maker, it loses more than it gains." He quotes the poet Richard Howard from a keynote address at the 1996 PEN Literary Awards where he said, "We have failed...to make poetry known; we have merely made it public. If we are to save poetry, which means if we are to savor it, we must restore poetry to that status of seclusion and even secrecy that characterizes our authentic pleasures and identifies only our intimately valued actions." Groff adds, (Howard sees) "... a poem as an intimate act of communication and not an occasion for a group grope."
I'm not sure that I agree with Groff that it loses more than it gains, but there is a difference and I think it is valid to question if the trade off is beneficial in the end. I do like Richard Howard's view that a poem is an very intimate communication. I believe the fact that each of us bring our own life prospectives to a printed page of poetry and therein some transformation occurs. That transformation is very personal. It has the readers soul imprinted upon it. Two readers are not necessarily going to see or get the same value from the same poem.
There is the physical aspect of poetry on a page. The line breaks. The way the poem fills out the white void that is a page before the poem is created. Much of poetry, though not all is about form. And I will remind you that though literary in construction, poetry is very much about images. Expressing place. It is also in some respects a visual art. David Groff's essay has indeed called into question the loss of a poem's form when read in public. It is an undeniable fact that in some poems this is of significant value. The eyes and mind are able to do something that the ears and mind cannot replicate.
I personally enjoy hearing poets read their own work. I enjoy poets reading other people's work. But I have heard poems and later read them to find I saw them in a quite different view. I will still do public readings. I will continue to attend public readings. What this essay has caused me to consider however, is just how important it is for each of us to stress reading poems personally. David Groff considers this the "ultimate act of poetic integrity... to take the poem home."
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
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