“…Pound praised H.D.’s writing by saying that it was ‘straight as the Greek’ and with no ‘slither.’ It took me awhile to see the gynophobia behind such rhetoric. I wanted my Imagism and my slither, too. My precision and my doubleness. … There is a way in which I am all of these characters–the doctor and the mother as well as the rebellious old woman and the child. These power struggles begin in the public sphere and are reenacted in private. The mother is charged with reproducing the social (linguistic) body within the single body of the child. (Clearly, gender has a lot to do with the power struggles in my poems. Increasingly so, perhaps.) … I think of my poetry…
Posts from the “Quote” Category
Ever hear of Diane Savino? You will. Currently our senator from Staten Island, she recently made the nation’s radar with her speech on the sanctity of marriage, well worth viewing here: “Diane Savino has dedicated her entire professional career towards improving the lives of working families. She began her career in public service as a caseworker for New York City’s Child Welfare Administration, providing direct assistance to abused and neglected children. … As a labor activist, she actively and successfully campaigned for an increase in the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.15—the first raise for New Yorkers in over a decade. … Senator Savino has passed important legislation, including a law that ended the 5-year statute of limitation on sexual assualt, a bill establishing…
“I am with you” –Whitman w/butterfly “My mind is a sacred cow / bleeding in the ellipsis.” — Tomaz Salamun In the ellipsis between now and then … COMING UP – Amy’s Readings Cadmium Text Series 17 January 2009 | The Gallery at R&F Paint | Hudson Valley, NY Babylon Green Party 4 February 2009 | Pisces Cafe | Babylon, NY “Uncertainty is more beautiful still.” –Wislawa Szymborska COMING UP – Stain of Poetry: A Reading Series January 30 @ 7 p.m. – Stain Bar – Williamsburg, Brooklyn *Bill Berkson, Cindy Cruz, Aaron Fagan, Jennifer Fortin, Jean-Paul Pecqueur and Bill Rasmovicz* * Hosted by Amy King and Ana Bozicevic “I do not doubt you.” – Laura Riding THIS WEEK’S ADVICE COLUMN Whenever you get…
Salvator Rosa “Stephen Potter advocated a similar device in the notoriously tricky area of wine snobbery. He recommended saying something completely meaningless, such as: ‘This wine has great corners.’ But the important thing is to say something interesting. There’s a wonderful self-portrait by Salvator Rosa in London’s National Gallery. It carries the inscription ‘Aut tace aut loquere meliora silentio’. Shut up, or say something useful.” –From The Gentle Art of Selling Yourself by Stephen Bayley
Excerpt from The Stamp of Class: Reflections on Poetry and Class – [Ron Padgett and Ted Berrigan] believed they could remain artists within their class only by accepting folk or popular conventions. To move beyond those conventions destined them to a place neither outside nor inside the class into which they were born. To complete the Padgett quote, “So it’s interesting to have grown up in a certain class and still feel in many ways that it made you who you are, and yet know that you can never really be a part of it again because of your interest in art and writing. It’s really weird. And one’s writing continues to be influenced by–not only the origins, but by the knowledge of the…
“Get ready for another economic shock of major proportions — a virtual doubling of prices at the gas pump to as much as $10 a gallon.” –The Sun ~~~~~ From: “Jeff Whitty” Date: April 21, 2006 To: (Tonight Show email address) Subject: For Mr. Leno Dear Mr. Leno, My name is Jeff Whitty. I live in New York City. I’m a playwright and the author of “Avenue Q”, which is a musical currently running on Broadway. I’ve been watching your show a bit, and I’d like to make an observation: When you think of gay people, it’s funny. They’re funny folks. They wear leather. They like Judy Garland. They like disco music. They’re sort of like Stepin Fetchit as channeled by Richard Simmons. Gay…
The Associated Press – Thursday, April 17, 2008 PARIS: The esteemed Martinique poet and politician Aimé Césaire, a leading figure in the movement for black consciousness, died Thursday, the French president’s office and a hospital said. He was 94. Césaire was involved in the fight for French West Indian rights, and he also served as a lawmaker in the lower house of France’s parliament for nearly 50 years. French President Nicolas Sarkozy successfully led a campaign last year to change the name of Martinique’s airport in honor of Césaire. Sarkozy on Thursday praised Césaire as “a great poet” and a “great humanist.” “As a free and independent spirit, throughout his whole life he embodied the fight for the recognition of his identity and the…
A Few Random Poets Speak on National Poetry Month – And We Eat … “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton “As for poetry ‘belonging’ in the classroom, it’s like the way they taught us sex in those old hygiene classes: not performance but semiotics. If it I had taken Hygiene 71 seriously, I would have become a monk; & if I had taken college English seriously, I would have become an accountant.” —Jerome Rothenberg On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.” —Carl Sandburg “For each letter…
The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire From the “INTRODUCTION” By Michael W. Jennings — THE WRITER OF MODERN LIFE: ESSAYS ON CHARLES BAUDELAIRE by Walter Benjamin: Yes the ragpicker is also a figure for Baudelaire, for the poet who draws on the detritus of the society through which he moves, seizing that which seems useful in part because society has found it useless. And finally, the ragpicker is a figure for Baudelaire himself, for the critic who assembles his critical montage from inconspicuous images wrested forcefully from the seeming coherence of Baudelaire’s poems. Here and throughout Benjamin’s writings on Baudelaire, we find a powerful identification with the poet: with his social isolation, with the relative failure of his work, and in…
“You can … discuss this avalanche of misogyny without endorsing her campaign …” –Bill Moyers in conversation with Kathleen Hall Jamieson ~~ Select excerpts from Robin Morgan’s “Goodbye To All That (#2)“: —When a sexist idiot screamed “Iron my shirt!” at HRC, it was considered amusing; if a racist idiot shouted “Shine my shoes!” at BO, it would’ve inspired hours of airtime and pages of newsprint analyzing our national dishonor. —John McCain answering “How do we beat the bitch?” with “Excellent question!” Would he have dared reply similarly to “How do we beat the black bastard?” For shame. —Goodbye to the sick, malicious idea that this is funny. This is not “Clinton hating,” not “Hillary hating.” This is sociopathic woman-hating. If it were about…
Or rather, Ashok Karra’s thoughts on my political side. I am most grateful for his ongoing engagement and interest in my work. Today, Ashok was moved by a recent poem that appears in Jacket, “Two if by Land, I Do”: …As always, Amy King is well-aware of what I, as a student of Leo Strauss, would call the ancient/modern distinction. The fundamental difference between us and the medievals/Romans/Greeks is that we base politics on the fact men are not angels… ~~ In the past, Ashok has explored “Everyone Has a Decision To Make“: I want to meditate on the above poem in order to see the relation between speech and coming to a conclusion within one’s own thought. My own feeling is that this…
“It is not best that we all should think alike, it is differences of opinion that make horse races.” –Mark Twain ~~ A few new poems written by my non-pseudonym in Jacket Magazine: * The Arm of Eden * Where Bullfinches Go to Defy * Two if by Land, I Do * A Martyrdom Should Behave Us All This is an early appearance as Jacket #35 is still under construction though you’ll find a little action there already. Please enjoy! ~~ This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 2:45 pm 4 Responses to “Not Thinking Alike” Jim K. Says: January 31st, 2008 at 5:55 pm eLooks like Mark Twain has anxiety… …but wait, that’s correct. Love those, esp. the last two.…
“The Question (torture), when considered as the art of discovering the truth, is a barbarous stupidity; it is the application of a material means to a spiritual end.” – Charles Baudelaire, Intimate Journals
Many of my students are required to watch the above youtube video, “A Girl Like Me”, among numerous others, as part of their supplemental assignments in my courses. Basically, I try to get them to begin analyzing by using the mediums they are most accustomed to, which include youtube and showing dvds of popular media in class. Some resist — these are the students who equate growing up in the “Information Age” with “knowing it all”. “Why do we have to ask so many questions?” And then there are the other students who suspect that they have inherited their belief systems from their parents and mainstream media and are longing for permission to question those values, especially as they become aware of the absence…
Does the poem below evidence Günter Grass’s predilection for the environmentalist movement? Finnish librarian, Petri Liukkonen, has curated and written the Pegasos Authors’ Calendar (Kirjailijakalenteri) for many moons now, a spot I go to for succinct author, theorist, & philosopher introductions. The following was lifted from said spot: [Günter Grass] has once said, that writers, by giving us ‘’mouth-to-ear artificial respiration,’’ help keep humanity alive. “You can begin a story in the middle and create confusion by striking out boldly, backward and forward. You can be modern, put aside all mention of time and distance and, when the whole thing is done, proclaim, or let someone else proclaim, that you have finally, at the last moment, solved the space-time problem. Or you can declare…
After Thirty Years … As the day of Independence draws near, I realize it’s high time to look closely at a truly egalitarian relationship that is symbiotic, nurturing, and successful in the face of the great American obstacles regularly and historically hurdled by Ernest & Louie Clay-Crew. The story these two share touches on the traditions this country still battles and thrives on. Regardless of your race, class, orientation, geographic locale, or gender, you’ll find that Ernest and Louie have something to teach us all about dependence and independence. A few excerpts follow below from their story, though it really ought to be read in entirety, and additionally, Louie maintains an elaborate list of poetry publishers that accepts electronic submissions for all of you…
First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons—but the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. There are the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different countries. Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored-up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. And somehow every lover knows this. He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. So there is only one thing for the lover to do. He must house his love within himself…
