| Author | Message | ||
| Carol Sanger
Valued Member Username: carolsang Post Number: 133 Registered: 01-2006 |
Language should not draw attention to itself. I got an eyeful of electronic language poetry and "generative writing" where you let the computer do some of the work with random word programs. Interesting in terms of what it does to form. It was fascinating to feel how the brain struggles to find an order, any order, in a seemingly random environment. Carolyn Forche spoke about the Poetry of Extremity – those extreme experiences of war, deprivation, torture, starvation, abuse on the levels of society and the individual. She spoke about the importance of coming to terms with evil and its embodiments. When crimes pile up, they can become invisible and we see that in the past, sometimes calling it complicity, or cowardice. Memories of extremity, taken together, comprise a single memory. I learned that poets, in her terms, are "permanent exiles" who cannot erase or escape what they have seen by going home – returning to their before; and that disaster is not experienced in the first person. It ruins the first person. It is the person who has been changed who must find language to describe the event and its effect on who s/he was before. I heard her say that physical pain is the touchstone of reality and that today is different than before because much of the pain of the world is common knowledge. So we all live with lingering moral anxiety. Gary Short did a session on short poems. One handout included “6 word novels from influential writers” – “For sale: baby shoes, never used.” Hemingway Another – “Eyeballed me, killed him. Slight exaggeration.” Irvine Welsh “Horny professor. Failing coed. No tenure.” Sue Grafton In a fascinating session with Aaron Shurin on the Art of Surrender and why you want to get out of the way of your poem, he made clear Keats’ notion of Negative Capability by using Keats own words: “…Beauty as that which obliterates all consideration.” Put another way: “excellence of every art is its intensity, capable of making all disagreeables evaporate from their being in close relationship with Beautify and Trust.” He quoted Mallarme as: “If the poem is to be pure, the poet’s voice must be stilled and the initiative taken by the words themselves, which will bet set in motion as they meet unequally in collision.” He said that the poem has to be “the world wanting you.” You must be negotiated by the world, negotiated by the poem. He recounted an exercise where he took Gilgamesh and cut out the phrases that resonated with him, mixed them up and pulled them out crafting a poem around them. The result was a work that took him to hell where he sat in judgment of his father – operating on a level more profound that he could have ever allowed himself. In another exercise he took a poem and cut it in half – vertically. He gave his students the LH side and told them to complete the right. Then gave them the RH side and told them to complete the left. Then told them to knit their work together, leaving behind the original poem. Much of this is still swimming around in my mind. In particular, it was Carolyn Forche’s insistence that political poems are important, that message matters and Aaron Shurin’s insights on how to remove oneself from the poem that have left the strongest impressions. | ||
| Lazarus
Advanced Member Username: lazarus Post Number: 1296 Registered: 10-2005 |
Oh wonderful Carol. Thank you so much for taking the time to post this here. I am saving it to return to as needed. I was also intrigued by Forche's idea that poems are politically important. And this quote: Art is ...capable of making all disagreeables evaporate from their being in close relationship with Beauty and Trust.” The Age of Nations is past. The task before us now, if we would not perish, is to build the earth. - Teilhard de Chardin | ||
| Zephyr
Senior Member Username: zephyr Post Number: 3933 Registered: 07-2003 |
This put into words things we know...but don't often consider, thank you for posting it Carol  | ||
| Gary Blankenship
Senior Member Username: garyb Post Number: 6900 Registered: 07-2001 |
How I envy you. Every year when our local conference occurs, something else is happening here. Sigh. Love Forche's ideas. Good to sea a poet who thinks poems are important. You said In another exercise he took a poem and cut it in half – vertically. He gave his students the LH side and told them to complete the right. Then gave them the RH side and told them to complete the left. Then told them to knit their work together, leaving behind the original poem. If M is listening the RH/LH seperation would make a great challenge. I'm assuming the poems were at least sonnet length lines. In fact sonnets would be very good to use a base. Thanks and smiles. Gary A River Transformed The Dawg House December Fireweed | ||
| Emusing
Moderator Username: emusing Post Number: 2910 Registered: 08-2003 |
Carol thanks for this extensive write up. It might be a good idea for us to archive this. Perhaps other members could write up their notes and share as they attend conferences. I still have my handwritten notes from San Miguel but you have given me the incentive to have them in a place where I can access the info. Might even be a good idea to have a sort of checklist of key items to refer to when one is creating or having difficulty with a poem. xo E | ||
| Carol Sanger
Valued Member Username: carolsang Post Number: 144 Registered: 01-2006 |
E - It is yours and the WPF's to do with as you will! Carol | ||
| Jeffrey S. Lange
New member Username: runatyr Post Number: 41 Registered: 10-2005 |
This made me want to look up my last conference notes as well! Thank you for posting this, it's a great summary of what must have been an equally great conference. And I concur that this ought to be archived somewhere so it's close at hand for everyone. ~Jeff "I had a lover's quarrel with the world." ~Robert Frost | ||
| Deborah P Kolodji
Valued Member Username: dkolodji Post Number: 268 Registered: 04-2005 |
Thanks for posting this. I'm going to want to return to this and read it again, so I think archiving it is a great idea! Deborah P Kolodji www.livejournal.com/~dkolodji www.kolodji.com Editor, Amaze: The Cinquain Journal Amaze: The Cinquain Journal | ||
| ~M~
Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 6790 Registered: 11-1998 |
Dearest Carol, et al -- I go through all the posts very carefully before I do my month's end house cleaning. I do archive important topics and those I think would be of interest to the membership in the future. That's what the archives were designed for. I would have archived this one without the prompting. So, rest assured the information will be retained. And please do check out NATUROPATHY -- there's lots of great stuff in there! Love, M | ||
| marty
Advanced Member Username: marty Post Number: 771 Registered: 10-2003 |
Carol, Thank you so much for posting this. The ideas presented, the concepts are really very useful and intriguing. |
