SOME STUFF, LOOKING FORWARD TO 1/28's CLASS


(see note I added to bottom of post at 2 pm on Tuesday)

I really dug all the poems on 1/21. Nick's sense of line
and stanza was arresting (and really, I enjoyed the way
the poem IMAGINED, really, a fictional speaker . . . one
who is simultaneously looking forward AND looking back).
I enjoyed Jennifer's aggressive form, the way it undercut
any possible sentimentality by risking giving the reader
a sense of maddening velocity instead of securing a reader's
emotional engagement with the speaker . . . art for art's sake
as well as a record of the life . . . I'm very attracted to
the long line in Jessica's poem--the insane but oddly quiet
DRIFT to the right side of the page, and the jarring line
breaks, jammed then hard left, back to the left margin. It's
scary, sensuous stuff. I enjoyed Chris's willful difficulty &
the way the questions seemed, just under some weird radar,
attached to the answers after all. And looking at the packets,
I like what's going on here already: Stevy's poems, like all
her poems, seem always to be seeking ground level, the
shifting & circling of the language both harmonious, in-
clusive, brilliant, all willfully difficult children--"Keeping 
as an art"? Yes, please. "Some evenings"? Geez. Mr Garvin
is confident enough to include an "American Sentence"--
this manic panther spewing, in many poems, autobiography
in bits & pieces of swirl, dodge, and bruised light. I already
referred to Lucas's piece by posting an Ashley Capps poem
as a kind of partner poem. Capps also mention Berryman
a lot in her work. Lucas wears many masks--goose killer?,
ocean greenery, possibly a babysitting liberal man in
his "Watching the State of the Union . . ." poem. Variety
is some spice in this life, no? So here we go: By the way,
you know what to say in workshop. Key off our aesthetic
criteria list. Seriously. Take my advice. Put the sheet next
to the poems. Also, imagine the pattern suggested by the
poems as stretching out over the span of up to 26 pages.
Does it work? One idea--one thing I do--is number the
poems, indicating a possible order that might work
best. Which poem should we start things off with. If
you have an idea about this, speak up in class!! So,
anyway, you may receive your poems with numerals on
top of the page. I am suggesting trying that order. Think
about it at least. Remember, we are going alphabetically.
I have been informed Jenny might not make it, though,
so I'd say we'll do Nick Arzola's, Mr Burkett's, Stevy
Erdman's, Niall Garvin's work, and Jessica Johnson's.
Ok? Also, be prepared to talk about the Ruefle poem
you chose. What's going on in that poem? Is it doing
what it's doing in many poems only more so in the
poem you chose? What the hell is going on in it to make
you favor it so!!?? See you in about a day and a half.
Btw: Niall and Stevy have blog links so far.

Note: As I mentioned, often I am attaching page numbers
to your poems, making an assumption about your eventual
number of pages. So, for instance, I'm assigning Lucas
20 pages. Lucas will have twenty pages of poems in his
chapbook. Now, it might be 16 pages in the end. It might be
24 pages. But I'm doing this so I can suggest approximately
where I imagine these poems, the first six or so handed
in, might be placed over the course of many pages . . .
So, in this "book" I have assigned the poems these
approximate places: "The Seaweed," p. 1; "Watching
the State of the Union . . .," p. 6; "Happy Father's Day,"
p. 10 or 11; "The goose king," p. 13; "Berryman," p. 8.

Understand?