| Author | Message | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 6757 Registered: 05-2006 |
Ms. Bang is one of those "difficult poem" poets. Like John Ashbery, her poems often require multiple readings for me to "get" them. In some cases, I never "get" them, but find my mind enormously stimulated. I am currently reading The Eye Like a Strange Balloon -- which is a collection of ekphrastic works. Most of the artworks that the poems are inspired by can be found on the internet, making reading the poems immensely easier. (Though I will say that the poems have an independence of the inspiring artworks that is impressive.) I am enjoying her work very much. What do you Wilders think about Ms. Bang? Fred I think I'm gonna give up poetry and go back to being a serial killer. | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1796 Registered: 11-2007 |
I have never read Mary Jo Bang before, so to do us both a favor I just found some of her work online, and waded in. I found myself moving, physically, to the rhythm of what she writes, swaying the way you do to music. She's slow going, and I think should be, definitely not a lightning read for anyone. Everything is dense, packed, filled with meaning sometimes, I think, meant only for her, and sometimes for whoever reads it. Ive never read much of Ashbery, he leaves me in the dust every time. But I may just have to pick up Mary Jo in the bookstore. What I read was part of a collection she wrote after the death of her son, and they are most moving. Her line breaks are part of the difficulty, partly because they make you back up and reread the line--not always a bad thing, btw. I think she's a powerful writer, but as with any poet, not for everyone. Afraid of the Dark | ||
| Andrew Dufresne
Senior Member Username: beachdreamer Post Number: 2966 Registered: 01-2006 |
I read her in Poetry a couple of years ago. I enjoy her poems. ad Out of the quarrel with others, we make rhetoric; out of the quarrel with ourselves poetry.--Yeats | ||
| bel_canto
Valued Member Username: bel_canto Post Number: 194 Registered: 06-2006 |
Thanks for this reference, Fred. I googled Mary Jo Bang to read a few of her poems, then promptly ordered a couple of her books. I was intrigued by her description of how she started to write poetry in response/association to her own photographs, as well as the reverse - later producing photographs in response to her own poems. It will be interesting (as well as educational) to see how Mary Jo's work has evolved from her first book of poems, Apology For Want, to her most recent publication, Elergy. But have to be patient: volumes haven't arrived yet! bel | ||
| Fred Longworth
Senior Member Username: sandiegopoet Post Number: 6781 Registered: 05-2006 |
This is a terrible pun, bel_canto . . . I'm glad to hear that you got a buck for the Bang. ********** And I'm pleased that I could make others aware of, or more aware of, a fine contemporary poet. Fred | ||
| Morgan Lafay
Senior Member Username: morganlafay Post Number: 3833 Registered: 08-2005 |
Well, this isn't deep, but typical for me... she has a funny name. Mix it up Mary Jo Bang; Jo Bang; Merry Bang; Go Bang; Gang Bang ... there could be more. Silliness aside, I'm sure she is a talented writer. someday I'll find it, the rainbow connection, for lovers, and dreamers, and me | ||
| Anna Brown
Intermediate Member Username: tissuetoyou Post Number: 695 Registered: 11-2007 |
Bang Mary Jo. Kinky. _______________________________ Thanks for the reference. I will check her out. _________________________________________________ If you're not a good person, try to be one; if you are a good person, try to be a better one. No one is perfect, but we choose how close to it we will be. | ||
| Patricia A. Marsh
Intermediate Member Username: patricia Post Number: 501 Registered: 12-2007 |
Well, looky there! Mary Jo Bang's poem---L Equals Look---is in the October 2009 issue of POETRY magazine.  | ||
| W.F. Roby
Intermediate Member Username: wfroby Post Number: 915 Registered: 03-2008 |
Mary Jo Bang was doomed to be a poet by whoever named her. May as well have made her middle name "Interro". /Too obscure? | ||
| Judy Thompson
Advanced Member Username: judyt54 Post Number: 1834 Registered: 11-2007 |
lol, maybe not obscure enough...ow ow ow Afraid of the Dark |
