Friday, June 22, 2007
Are There 13 Poems-on-Poetry That I Like?
If you've read me long enough, you may know that poems-on-poetry are not generally something I like. There's enough navel gazing and narcissism in contemporary poetry anyway, so when a poem starts to go on about the power of poetry or (even worse) the process, my eyes start sneaking toward the door (or just about anything else, really). But there are a few poems-on-poetry/writing that I actually like, so I'm going to list all the ones I can think of and see if I can get to 13. You won't find Marianne Moore's "Poetry" (half good mean fun, half poorly edited blather) or Archibald MacLeish's wrongheaded "Ars Poetica" here.
1. "Teaching the Ape to Write Poetry" by James Tate. Funny-creepy is one of my favorite tones for poetry. I also like apes and hubris.
2. "The Joy of Writing" by Wislawa Szymborska. Killer first three lines. Szymborska does a lot of poems-on-poetry, doesn't she?
3. "Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry" by Howard Nemerov. Sharp lyric description put to good use.
4. "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" by John Ashbery. It figures that one of the Ashbery poems I like more (and feel like wanders off into space less) is one that seems to me is gently tweaking people who complain about his poetry. Was that "Every Ashbery poem is about poetry" line just a straw man Vendler made up to pummel, or can it be sourced to someone?
5. "Wrong Poem" by Mark Halliday. This one wins me over with the phrase "drooling gerbil." Oddly, the only place it can be found online is from when I posted it in the comments of A. D.'s blog (and it's a terrible fit for the kind of poem he was looking for--I probably posted it just because I thought it was fun).
6. "Ground Swell" by Mark Jarman. This was one of the first poems I discovered in contemporary poetry when I started following it in college.
7. "Lines" by Martha Collins. I'm going to interpret this one broadly and say it can be about writing too.
8. "Love the Wild Swan" by Robinson Jeffers. I'm a sucker for misanthropy if it's done artfully.
9. "Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand. Apparently it helps you get on this list if your name is Mark.
10. "Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara. This pretty much epitomizes New York School, doesn't it? Both the stuff I like and the stuff I don't like so much.
11. "Why the Prose Poem Will Never Get the Respect It So Richly Deserves" by Robert Perchan. From the Poetry West chapbook contest winner. Fun, crazy stuff.
12. "The Poem" by Ellen Kirvin Dudis. First published in The Eleventh Muse.
13. "Hello Thank You" by Jordan Davis.
Fine, I cheated at the end. If I ever write a poem that's blatantly on poetry (I think that theme can be found in some of my current poems, but it's not at the fore), I will call it "Arse Poetica." That's probably already been used, though. Sigh...
1. "Teaching the Ape to Write Poetry" by James Tate. Funny-creepy is one of my favorite tones for poetry. I also like apes and hubris.
2. "The Joy of Writing" by Wislawa Szymborska. Killer first three lines. Szymborska does a lot of poems-on-poetry, doesn't she?
3. "Because You Asked About the Line Between Prose and Poetry" by Howard Nemerov. Sharp lyric description put to good use.
4. "Paradoxes and Oxymorons" by John Ashbery. It figures that one of the Ashbery poems I like more (and feel like wanders off into space less) is one that seems to me is gently tweaking people who complain about his poetry. Was that "Every Ashbery poem is about poetry" line just a straw man Vendler made up to pummel, or can it be sourced to someone?
5. "Wrong Poem" by Mark Halliday. This one wins me over with the phrase "drooling gerbil." Oddly, the only place it can be found online is from when I posted it in the comments of A. D.'s blog (and it's a terrible fit for the kind of poem he was looking for--I probably posted it just because I thought it was fun).
6. "Ground Swell" by Mark Jarman. This was one of the first poems I discovered in contemporary poetry when I started following it in college.
7. "Lines" by Martha Collins. I'm going to interpret this one broadly and say it can be about writing too.
8. "Love the Wild Swan" by Robinson Jeffers. I'm a sucker for misanthropy if it's done artfully.
9. "Eating Poetry" by Mark Strand. Apparently it helps you get on this list if your name is Mark.
10. "Why I Am Not a Painter" by Frank O'Hara. This pretty much epitomizes New York School, doesn't it? Both the stuff I like and the stuff I don't like so much.
11. "Why the Prose Poem Will Never Get the Respect It So Richly Deserves" by Robert Perchan. From the Poetry West chapbook contest winner. Fun, crazy stuff.
12. "The Poem" by Ellen Kirvin Dudis. First published in The Eleventh Muse.
13. "Hello Thank You" by Jordan Davis.
Fine, I cheated at the end. If I ever write a poem that's blatantly on poetry (I think that theme can be found in some of my current poems, but it's not at the fore), I will call it "Arse Poetica." That's probably already been used, though. Sigh...
Comments:
<< Home
Nice list. Enjoyed it. Except for Strand. :)
Rukeyser:
READING TIME: 1 MINUTE 26 SECONDS
The fear of poetry is the
fear : mystery and fury of a midnight street
of windows whose low voluptuous voice
issues, and after that there is not peace.
The round waiting moment in the
theatre : curtain rises, dies into the ceiling
and here is played the scene with the mother
bandaging a revealed son's head. The bandage is torn off.
Curtain goes down. And here is the moment of proof.
That climax when the brain acknowledges the world,
all values extended into the blood awake.
Moment of proof. And as they say Brancusi did,
building his bird to extend through soaring air,
as Kafka planned stories that draw to eternity
through time extended. And the climax strikes.
Love touches so, that months after the look of
blue stare of love, the footbeat on the heart
is translated into the pure cry of birds
following air-cries, or poems, the new scene.
Moment of proof. That strikes long after act.
They fear it. They turn away, hand up, palm out
fending off moment of proof, the straight look, poem.
The prolonged wound-consciousness after the bullet's shot.
The prolonged love after the look is dead,
the yellow joy after the song of the sun.
Rukeyser:
READING TIME: 1 MINUTE 26 SECONDS
The fear of poetry is the
fear : mystery and fury of a midnight street
of windows whose low voluptuous voice
issues, and after that there is not peace.
The round waiting moment in the
theatre : curtain rises, dies into the ceiling
and here is played the scene with the mother
bandaging a revealed son's head. The bandage is torn off.
Curtain goes down. And here is the moment of proof.
That climax when the brain acknowledges the world,
all values extended into the blood awake.
Moment of proof. And as they say Brancusi did,
building his bird to extend through soaring air,
as Kafka planned stories that draw to eternity
through time extended. And the climax strikes.
Love touches so, that months after the look of
blue stare of love, the footbeat on the heart
is translated into the pure cry of birds
following air-cries, or poems, the new scene.
Moment of proof. That strikes long after act.
They fear it. They turn away, hand up, palm out
fending off moment of proof, the straight look, poem.
The prolonged wound-consciousness after the bullet's shot.
The prolonged love after the look is dead,
the yellow joy after the song of the sun.
I'm not familiar with that one, though I tend to like Stevens more when he's a little less meta, for whatever reason. :-)
These are exactly the kind of posts I love! Great resource. Thanks! May prompt me to make a list of my favorite contemporary formal poems.
Nice list--I'd have to add Ashbery's "What Is Poetry?"
What Is Poetry
John Ashbery
The medieval town, with frieze
Of boy scouts from Nagoya? The snow
That came when we wanted it to snow?
Beautiful images? Trying to avoid
Ideas, as in this poem? But we
Go back to them as to a wife, leaving
The mistress we desire? Now they
Will have to believe it
As we believed it. In school
All the thought got combed out:
What was left was like a field.
Shut your eyes, and you can feel it for miles around.
Now open them on a thin vertical path.
It might give us--what?--some flowers soon?
What Is Poetry
John Ashbery
The medieval town, with frieze
Of boy scouts from Nagoya? The snow
That came when we wanted it to snow?
Beautiful images? Trying to avoid
Ideas, as in this poem? But we
Go back to them as to a wife, leaving
The mistress we desire? Now they
Will have to believe it
As we believed it. In school
All the thought got combed out:
What was left was like a field.
Shut your eyes, and you can feel it for miles around.
Now open them on a thin vertical path.
It might give us--what?--some flowers soon?
Way back in the early-mid 90s I wrote a pile of poem-poems, which are poems as "ars poetica", poems which often realize they are poems and sometimes don't like it. They usually talk about themselves in the third person. If you took that Mark Halliday poem and snipped it at the second line, that's the kind of poem I was writing:
This is the fourth poem
I have written today. The poem
did not arrive volunteer. Rather, it is a
conscripted poem, dressed in an ill-fitting
suit, looking sullen. And, of course, it wants to be
somewhere else, poor thing. But this poem, the fourth
I’ve written today and so something of an also-ran,
waits to do its service. If it’s not ready,
anyway, it’s here.
A few got published, including these at Shampoo
Post a Comment
This is the fourth poem
I have written today. The poem
did not arrive volunteer. Rather, it is a
conscripted poem, dressed in an ill-fitting
suit, looking sullen. And, of course, it wants to be
somewhere else, poor thing. But this poem, the fourth
I’ve written today and so something of an also-ran,
waits to do its service. If it’s not ready,
anyway, it’s here.
A few got published, including these at Shampoo
<< Home
