Poetry and Diversity in Chicago

I attended a Symposium a couple of weeks ago at the University of Chicago's Library organized by the David Pavilich, Librarian of poetry and other things, on Poetry in Chicago.

The Event was a celebration of the acquisition of the papers of two Chicago institutions- Flood Editions and Michael Anania. The event was very tweedy-controlled and was set up as a celebration of the acquisition.

I did not stay for the portion by Anania which I understand was excellent- so I am not going to comment on that part but I was there for the Flood Editions portion and I have to say that it caused me to pause and ask a question- is poetry always condemned to be viewed as dilettantism in the USA?

There has always been a conflict in American poetry between the struggling gritty poet; Sandburg, Whitman, Brooks, Williams who lives in the 'world' and the poet dilettante, Pound, Dickinson, Lowell who live in rarefied air and whose engagement with poetry is separate from the grittiness.

During the section of the symposium on Flood Editions I kept asking myself what about Flood is particularly Chicago- apart from the fact that Michael O'Leary one of the editors lives here? Flood tends to publish very interesting poets who are experimental without regard for region and Flood tends to produce books that are really well crafted.

I think that the well crafted part is what makes Flood so Chicago. If you drive around Chicago the thing you notice is the solidity of the buildings. Brick, Stone and Cement. Chicago is not Dallas where the buildings all look like Paper Mac he- it is a solid place and that is what Flood does so well. Their books are well designed and solid. Their editorial choices are solid as well.

But having said all of this there was a waft of tweedy Hyde Park in the symposium.

One attendee asked a very salient question about diversity. This was not addressed and the room needed to have the discussion. I think that the thing that hurts poetry in the United States is lack of class diversity. There is not a lot of difference between a poet who is upper class and happens to be a woman or African American and someone who is of European origin. Yes they are victims of racism/sexism but their position of privilege is still intact. There is less at stake for an upper class poet...

This is what makes Poets like Ed Roberson , Nate Mackey or Mark Nowak so important because they are serious well educated poets whose work is in dialogue with bigger things. I kind of look at Mackey and Roberson are to Poetry as Michelle Obama is the Lawyers they came from normal origins and while they are exceptional- they have not forgotten where they arose.

I hope in the future that Class differences can be discussed in the Chicago Poetry Symposium and that local Chicago poets like Mark Tardi, Kimberly Lojek, Carlos Campian, Francisco Aragon, Ed Roberson and others who come from different class backgrounds and experiences are allowed to dialogue about what diversity really means- and to ask probing questions about the lack of class diversity in poetry.

Having said all this Pavilich needs to be praised for organizing the event- even if it was a little self-congratulatory for the the U of C- the reality is that the the University of Chicago does not really engage with Chicago or its poets and perhaps Pavilich can change this fact. Up to this point there is no place at the U of C that compares to say the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writer's house where the local literary community and the Ivy League can meet on common ground maybe this symposium will lead to that?

Catholic Poets-Catholic Popes

The Pope is visiting the USA this week. We will hear the musings of the chattering class about pedophilia and oppression and those comments and critiques are well deserved. As a Catholic I am ashamed of what happened just as I am ashamed of other things that are done in my name since I ascent to be a member of the Church.

Having said that one of the differences between Catholicism and other groups is that we have a distinct Culture that informs our history as a people. The thing that no megachurch or evangelical group can ever replace is the fact that Catholic Culture gave birth to so much of what makes up our current world. Our community is based in many things and these are not new.

One area of Catholic Culture that is not known- even by Catholics is our poetry. In the USA we Catholics are proud of our fiction writers, Flannery O'Connor, Walker Percy, and Jack Kerouac and many others but it is in poetry where Catholic culture has given so much to the world.

The origin poetry in Italian and Spanish are profoundly Catholic. The first poetry written in the Italian language was written by Francis of Assisi and Dante. This poetry sits as the origin of that language and it can be argued that the Divine Comedy is the greatest poem ever written apart from the Illiad and the Odyssey.

In Spanish the poetry of John of Cross continues to influence Spanish poetry to this day. It was John of Cross who served as the essential bridge between Moorish Spanish poetry and the poetry of the Americas. There is no poet writing in Spanish who has not been influenced by John.

There are many contemporary poets who are identified as Catholic. Gerard Manley Hopkins who many see as the progenitor of Modernism. Czeslaw Milosz who made poetry of the Slavic world and the Iron Curtain real for the 20th Century. Thomas Merton and William Everson whose work brought the journey to American audiences and Gabriella Mistral the Nobel Lauriate who brought personal inner poetry to the world. It could also be argued that Cesar Vallejo, Pablo Neruda and Ottavio Paz could be classified as Catholic culturally- the Church and its culture fill their work.

Why is this important? Because in most cases religion in the United States is more like a drive through restaurant than a feast. We fill up on Bible and emotion and then go back to the grind that is our lives. But Catholics and others whose religion have a culture have so much more to draw from. As Mozart said "to leave the Church would mean that I could not recieve the Eucharist in the great Cathedrals and that thought is intolerable". That is also how I feel about our poets and writers. Many concervatives want to boil down the Faith to practices and devotions but Catholicism is more than that it is a Culture a Culture that most of my brethern do not even know exists.

To be separated from these poets- well the thought is intolerable. But many will say why? Why be a member of this Church that does so many bad things (which is does). Mostly because life is not a drive through window- it is work and to leave would be easy.

I think that too many poets today are based not in a history or culture but in their own narcissism and that has made their work too personal and too stale. It is in the contradictions that we are made new again. So I remain angry but obedient-

So as the Pope visits us- I will choose the poets.

Violence is our Currency

Violence is our currency. We as a species thrive on violence and while we laud prophets of non-violence and peace we also revile them as well.

I keep thinking about this China Olympics thing and the amount of money these protests are causing major sponsors. The Tibetian cause has been dubbed a "wine and cheese" protest but I think it is something bigger.

China has become the enabler of violence in our world, while the USA is the actor of violence. Not all violence is military. The destruction of industries and the loss of jobs in many parts of the world to China's near slave labor conditions is a insidious as any military war. We have chosen to prefer violence to non-violence in the way we buy and in the way we live.

Our societies have always loved and reviled non-violent prophets. Martin Luther King was murdered as was Gandhi. Thomas Merton and Dorothy Day in my own tradition are ignored or attacked because they refused to agree that violence of war or economic injustice were acceptable and of course Jesus was Crucified.

When I see uniformed Chinese policemen fighting with protestors in the US or Europe I have to ask the question? Why can't we say the truth about injustice and violence? The reason is because we do not have the moral authority to do so- we are complicit in violence. Violence makes our lives easier- violence is our currency.

World Poetry versus American Poetry

It has been said that Americans are the most isolated people in the world because they dwell thousands of miles away from everyone else separated by oceans. I think this is BS since Brazilians, Argentines and Indians dwell as far away as Americans do and they are not isolated.

I think that in our poetics in the USA our problem is American Exceptional ism. World Poetry is in dialogue with the globe American poetry is not.

A good example of this is that there is a profound dialogue between Brazilian poets that I know and some American literary stars like Charles Bernstein but this need to encounter the world has not trickled down to poets at lower rungs.

A recent Myopic Reading here in Chicago featured poets Mark Tardi and Daniel Borzutsky who have done great translation work.
Aufgabe and Circumferance Magazines do a great job but I think
thousands of Americans get MFA's each year and only a small
minority read world literature. We spend too much time facebooking and blogging and not enough time reading.

I had a great conversation last month with Kristen Dykstra a professor at Illinois State who manages Mandorla. Prof. Dykstra has foregone her poetry to do this important work of bringing Latin American poetry to the USA. But the problem is much deeper. MFA programs are predicated on specialization. They are like MBA's for writers they remove broad knowledge in favor of craft. These programs normally do not encourage deep reading and they feed a culture of specialization that is unreal- I wonder how many budding poets quit to get real jobs? Wasting the money they spent on the MFA.

As a business person I have always been attracted to European business people because they are so diverse. I have known global business leaders who are sculptors, painters and poets. This is a real rarity in the USA. But diversity of thought is also a real rarity among American poets.
I can think of only a few younger poets who are interested in these things; John Tipton, William Allegrezza, Johannes Gorensson, Mark Tardi, Jen Hofer, Jen Scappettone, Kristin Dykstra while there are so many working on their own work which in many cases will be read by only a few people within our poetic world.

I think the challenge is to expand that poetic world to more. America's influence is weaker in a global world and we need to embrace that the world has allot to offer. Deep reading is what is needed and less poetic politicking. In the end the game players will win but at least I have made my argument for reading more, writing better and maybe talking less about ourselves.

"the thrill of the grass"

There is something about opening day. I came to baseball like most young people via my dad. He was a Yankee fan- but my mother was a Dodger fan and so growing up in Chicago being a Cubs fan was out of the question and so I fell in love with the White Sox.

For me it was the 1977 White Sox, the South Side Hitmen, Harry Caray, Wayne Nordhagen, Oscar Gamble and Bill Veeck that I fell in love with and that love has remained a constant for 30 years.

I always took opening day for granted.

In 1994 I was living in Bolivia and 1994 looked like OUR year. We had a great team and I was sure this was it. I would go to a bar in Cochabamba with only other White Sox fan in South America- a U of C Professor I met who was studying the Guarani people of the Chaco and watch an occasional ESPN game. Then they went on strike. 1994 gone, 1995 gone.

I remained in South America until 1998 and my interest waned. Then in the spring of 1998 I moved back to the USA and I remembered 'the thrill of the grass' . This quote from WP Kinsella's novel Shoeless Joe which is better known as Field of Dreams from the mouth of Shoeless Joe Jackson was deep in me and it remains so.

Spring, Easter and Opening day. The sense that all is possible. The rhythm of the day with a game on everynight and the history. Like Catholicism if you are a Baseball fan you are part of a huge communion of saints. These saints belong to us- Ruth, Appling, Musial, Banks, Robinson they are all ours.

It is only because of the thrill of the grass that a person who I respect and admire like Mark Tardi could be infected with that most despicable of diseases, Cubfandom. Yet you have to admire Cubs fans- they are such dorks yet they love their team and their dump of a ballpark.

It was 12 months of sheer pleasure when I could say, I am watching the "world champions" and while it would be the worst year of my life I hope someday they get to say that about the baby bears, or maybe I don't. Maybe I enjoy their pain... The fact that they finally have dedicated a statue to Ernie Banks is a testament to where their priorities lay...

Some of the people I admire most in the world understand the Thrill of Grass. Most educated people understand Baseball. I can understand a distain for other sports but when someone tells me that they find Baseball boring or long I immediately get turned off like seeing a pretty woman with rotten teeth. There is something about the pace. The pure joy of Game five of the 2005 World Series, a 1-0 Shutout where the winning run was scored by Willie Harris off a chopper over the head of the second baseman.. pure joy.

So we begin opening day, against the Damn Indians. I look forward to my first trip to 35th and Shields to the first time this year- the first double play and the first hot dog- and the hope that this is the year again.

For my Cub fan friends... happy 1ooth anniversary of your last World Series Title.... as I smile..

Fitna: Freedom and Expression

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=7d9_1206624103

There is much controversy about the film that is linked above. It is easy to demagogue an entire culture but I think that it is important to ask some questions. I write this post as a practicing Catholic. Someone who has to accept all the evil that my particular branch of Christianity imposed on people in slavery and colonialism.

There is no moral superiority for the Bible or Christianity over the Koran. There are verses in both the Tanakh and New Testaments as vile as the verses in the Koran in the film above. The difference is that in the Christian world we do not on the whole try to impose our religious beliefs on others.

We have in fact made a decision that religious practice and law are separate. This was not an easy transition. My Church opposed this, the Mormons and Christian Fundamentalists tried to form theocracies. In the end Freedom of Choice won these arguments and authoritarian religion lost.

Having said that many liberals and progressives are uncomfortable standing up for what our Western tradition believes there is this false sense that all expressions are the same they are not. There is a difference between the ideal of a good society in the Christian West and the Muslim world. Until we admit and understand this we will continue to not understand the challenge before us.

That challenge is not going to be met with bombs or wars. In many ways it is a challenge that needs to be fought with ideas. For 200 years Catholics and Protestants fought wars of religion. Then the French and American Revolutions happened we then fought between Traditional notions of the state and the current enlightenment model, then we fought between Liberals, Fascists and Communists.

All of these fights were ones of ideas primarily. It was liberal ideas that defeated Hitler and Communism and the Counter Reformation and Calvin's theocracy and Slavery in the USA and the British in India. Ideas that All people are Created Equal and that they have a right to decide for themselves what they want to believe.

This is why I post this film on my Blog. Not because I agree with it- but because I disagree with threats and murder for people expressing ideas. People have a right to criticize whatever they want including the Bible the Koran, Jesus or Muhammad and that is what makes us free.

The Intertia of the Poetry Scene making Decisions

I have had many conversations about the prominance of poet scenesters- poets whose primary claim to fame is that they are good at managing the poetry scene rather than creating great work. There have been many scenesters in literature whose work was well crafted d'Annunzio and Oscar Wilde come to mind.

There are current poets who are fine at the craft and also good at managing the scene and promoting themselves. Simone Muench, Tracy Grinnell, Jen Hofer, Juliana Spahr and Joshua Clover come to mind. They are all fine poets and you cannot fault them for leveraging who they are and their fine writing. They are playing the game but they are doing the work and this is a fine balance. They are our rock stars but they do the work and so who can fault them for doing the politics?

In contrast to this there is an entire world of Scenester poets. Poet's whose work is mediocre or worse but who are lauded because they are good at the scene. The other night at Danny's Reading Series in Chicago we heard from one of those who benefits from a scene pass- Matthea Harvey.

I kept thinking who published this stuff?

Then I realized Ms Harvey is tied into the whole Iowa scene and she has the right breeding and support- and then it all became clear why the work was published. There are others here in Chicago whose work is dreadful but who fit into a scene and have good breeding but whose poetry in unreadable- but they are part of the scene and so they get play and we all scratch our head's in disbelief.

The phenomenon of the poetry community supporting a scenester whose work is weak is rife in American poetry. There are many poets who are on their third or fourth book and no one has said-" why is this work good?" Where are our critics?

Poetry Communities are essential to our artform and their are poets in our community in Chicago whose work I hate -but the work has merit- it is like preferring De Kooning to Pollock. Both are good but different.

But a community is not a critical structure and that is what we are lacking. The problem is that so many poets work gets by- without critique --. If you went to the right school (Iowa, Brown, Bard, you get the picture) you can plan on getting your work published and not being critiqued even if the work is weak.

Critics who are also poets are afraid to be critical of other poets because we don't want to lose a future opportunity- and the artform does not grow because of the lack of competition. I have been to hundreds of readings- where all the listeners roll their eyes, like on Wednesday at Danny's when Ms Harvey finished at the weakness of the poetry-- but no one says anything because of fear of it coming back to haunt them in the future.

Triduum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Triduum

I have always loved Holy Week. When I was a small child we would spend it with the Commie Priests of D'Andreas in Lemont, IL. The magesty of the Three Days. The wholeness of the washing of the feet, the horror of the Passion and the relief of the first Alleluja.

I have written about this before but the most moving Holy Thursday for me was in 1995

when I was a volunteer in the Men's Prison of San Sebastian in Cochabamba, Bolivia. On that day Fr Benoit the pastor of the jail invited the inmates, many of whom hated each other to wash each other's feet- it was a moment of grace.

Last year Traudi and I were in Istanbul and we went to Mass in a mostly Muslim city with Mass in Italian. There is something that grounds me in Holy Week. I can do without Christmas but Easter is something again. Easter means rebirth and spring and the fact that God who became human chose to banish fear. So often religious people forget that Jesus banished fear. We wollow in fear and this is many times our greatest sin. Fear has lead to so many evils.

"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they and some others came to the tomb, bringing the spices which they had prepared.

24:2They found the stone rolled away from the tomb.

"Why do you seek the living among the dead?

24:6 He isn't here, but is risen.

Gospel of Luke

Why China's Oppression Matters.

I worked for many years with China in previous jobs. I became friends with a man who was a porter in our Hong Kong office I will call him mister Shen. Mr Shen was a lovely man who introduced me to the joys of noodle soup and Chinese tailors- I liked him very much.

We became friends because of the fact that we are both Catholics. He invited me to a Rosary in the city of Shenzen where he lived with his wife and daughter.

After a few years I stopped working in China and I called a friend to see how Mr Shen was doing and I was told he had been taken into "Custody". He was arrested for having an unauthorized Rosary in his apartment and for being loyal to the Pope.

China is the fastest growing Power in the world. It is consuming resources the way the US did in the 19th century. We should applaud the new Chinese economy and we should embrace the emergence of China- but we need to reject their system of governance because that system is evil.

The Chinese government is oppressing and destroying the culture of Tibet and those people are rioting against this oppression. Thousands of Chinese are in prison for things as simple as writing poetry or attending Rosaries. Millions of Chinese are worked to death producing export products and they have no right to redress or organized labor.

To pretend that China is just another dictatorship is folly. China is the largest owner of American treasury bills. China is supporting oppressive regimes around the world. Yet the world is going to Beijing for the Olympics is this the story we want told? That the world played sports while this nation continues to oppress its own people and supporting regimes that oppress.

In the end we need to ask ourselves do our values matter? Or is it all about the money?? I say boycott the Beijing Games until Tibet is free and people are free to pray the Rosary in their living room without molestation.

Nazi Literature in the Americas

Most American Poets- like most Americans are unaware of the world outside their own minds. There is little dialogue between American poets and global poets and so the project of Roberto Bolano's Nazi Literature in the Americas will fall flat. But to those few who know the rich cultural milleu of our Hemisphere this book will serve as a lodestar.

Bolano takes as his central premise Right Wing literati and then he uses short story to expose their ironies. He is especially hard on poets- which is appropriate since poets are the artists he most admires. This book however serves as a critique of all of us.

Many writers and poets today are content to remain within the safe world of Academe or poetland and they do not engage with society as a whole. In Bolano's book he takes another tact- the Fascist. The fact is that there are many poets and writers who were not Leftish- Pound, Stevens, Celine, Marinetti, Ahkmatova, Llosa and many others and we tend to forget this fact. Also there are a slew of lesser writers whose work is nursed on the tit of the right.

Bolano also deconstructs our decisions in this book. He shows us how the decisions we make as poets or writers can lead to a consequence we regret. Here in is the reasonj to read this book. \

Spend the time with its short stories and listen for your own hypocracy- I certainly listened to mine.

Roberto Bolano- Again

So I continue with Roberto Bolan~o's Nazi Literature in the Americas. In many ways this book is perfect for lunch. What I mean by this is that it is made up of twelve or thirteen page short stories that for a person like with with an hour lunch can be read and digested well.

There is so much texture in this book and its critique of 'fascist intellectuals' can serve well as a critique for all 'poets'.



I don't know if you all saw but Charles Bernstein is not profiled on the Poetry Foundation website- obviously Established Verse Culture no longer includes the great foundation on Clark Street. Or maybe Charles IS established verse culture? Ron Silliman started this on his blog...

But back to Bolano( I cannot do the ~ on my Blogger) he really cuts into the literary mindset the way that Gilbert Sorrentino did in an early novel talking about poet's and writer's real motivations. This book slowly disects the mentality and shows us how much we need to be chastised. I like books that expose hypocracy and this book does that well.

Read this Book.

I went to a play by Carla Harryman on Friday last- it was interesting- it helped that the actors were all very attractive. It was an interesting U of Chicago type event (where you feel like a skunk at a picnic or a black guy trying to hail a cab).

I got to Meet the real Barrett Watten- all tweedy and Homo Professorus. But in all seriousness Watten is a favorite and the fact that he lives in Detroit gives him some street cred- he and Ms Carla lived in San Francisco for a long time but there is no street cred there- unless you are Robert Duncan and he is dead.

Garin Cycholl and I are going to go with Bill Allegrezza on pilgrimage to hang out with the bard of Ypsilanti- Clayton Eshelman- and maybe we can get Barrett to go to a Tigers game with us??
But the play was something- very engaging and I was prepared to hate it and I was moved.

I continue with Robert Bolano's book- go buy it.

Nazi Literature in the Americas

After a nice lunch with Robt Archembeau Friday (nothing nicer than two fat poets having lunch) where we talked about this book.

I have just begun this book- but the inspiration of the first short story makes it worth going on. Right Wing Intellectuals get short shrift in the USA. The fact is that this is an area that needs more study.

In Latin America being a Right wing intellectual is not unknown- and Bolano- does something in this book that I think needs to be said- "Why are you Writing?" "what is your literary life about?"

I will continue to talk about this book as I enter it fully- but I must say Bolano is correct and he challenges every weak- milquetoast poet's work to mean something....

Catholics in Chicago

http://chicagohistory.org/planavisit/exhibitions/catholic-chicago/index



It is not normal for poets- especially those who consider themselves "experimental" to be Roman Catholic. The fact is however that I am both a Roman Catholic and an Experimental Poet. I frankly agree with Mozart- I could never leave the Church and not be able to recieve the Eucharist in Chartre Cathedral.

Having said that my Church has done in recent years everything in its power to hurt our Catholic community. The Church's position on Women and Gays I totally reject- the Churches complicity in Child Sexual Abuse is vile and frankly it is an insult to all the Catholics in America.

With the recent death of William F Buckley- late conservative guru and Catholic- I have been thinking about my Church. Catholicism has always been a broad faith. Both St Francis (of the Flowers) and St Dominic (of the Inquisition) were active in the Church at the same time. Catholics today range from William F Buckley and Pat Buchanan to EJ Dionne and Garry Wills- a Church that can have given birth to Opus Dei and Liberation Theology at the same time is truly where I want to be.

At the Chicago History Museum they are doing an exhibit on the Catholics of Chicago. Chicago is in many ways America's most Catholic city. Until recently Catholicism really permiated our town and over half the people in the City were Catholics. Our ancestors gave us great hospitals, Universities and schools and that history- often ignored by many in America- is worth experiencing again.

In a time when women had no rights or professions- Catholic Nuns were presidents of Universities and presidents of Hospitals- in a time when most Catholic could not enter Marshall Fields department store because we were "not the right sort" we built magnificent Churches that still today awe people in Chicago. We have a right to be proud of our heritage- as Flannery O'Conner said once "all my stories begin with Catholicism and stories I heard as a young girl about my history"

It is the connection to the past and the future that makes Catholicism my home. What I like about Catholicism is the same thing I love about baseball- tradition, ritual, miracles, and shared common experience. I attended Mass once in Hong Kong with a room full of Filipina maids- all in white, I have attended Mass in the Andes, in Rome and in Istanbul and the Eucharist bound us together. This connection cannot be found many places.

Normally when I deal with poets they are neo-Buddhists or 'non religious' or simply self absorbed but I have chosen to remain in my family and to dissent. It is Lent now and shortly it will be Easter and when I attend the Easter Vigil and they with the fire will sing the first Alleluya of the year that connection will be made clear. A connection to Mozart, Francis, Borgia Popes and Fra Angelico.

Moxley Fin

I usually do not work on airplanes- I am normally too fat to open on lap-top on the plane. On a trip Sunday night from Chicago to LA I decided to finish Moxley's Middle Room and then read it again.

I have found this memoir interesting and moving on many levels. While Moxley is of my generation our background are distinct hers a kind of post-radical upbringing while my family is squarely in the Reagan Democrat- Catholic way. But having said that her book is moving for anyone who remembers being in college when Reagan was president.

There is a section where she writes about typewriters. How GenX is the last generation to learn to write this way. I was moved by this dialogue in the book.

I am not going to give away the end of this book because frankly I want people to buy the book but I have to say that the entire journey of the book to poetry has a Augustinian sense of conversion that makes the work a must read for poets. I think that the part I like the best is the romance part between Moxley and her long time Amante. The fact that I sort of know these people made the work seem personal but I liked it.

Anyway I urge everyone to buy this book it is a great book for Lent. Or Easter if you want rebirth.

The Rebirth of the Journey Book

In the great tradition of journey books. Genesis, Exodus, Confessions of St Augustine, and Dante's Divine Comedy .

In American literature we have Moby Dick, The Seven Storey Mountain, On the Road, The Grapes of Wrath. Books like these are not written much today.

Whether these books are novels or memoirs there was a time when people were genuinely interested in the various metanoias of great poets or writers. There was a desire to understand what made a poet and moved them toward their art.

In recent years irony and detachment have become central to the Post Avant garde. We now do not reveal anything from our interior lives. This movement is best encapsulated by the kind of Avant Garde- Hipster poetic that began with Language/Charles Bernstein and continues today in so much of contemporary poetic practice. There are a slew of fine poets whose interior lives and texture is kept out of the work intentionally so that we are left only with the poetic and we do not get a chance to understand where they are coming from poetically or personally.

All one has to do is read poets like; Jena Osman, Juliana Spahr, Catherine Daly, Jennifer Scappettone, Joshua Corey, Peter O'Leary, Joshua Clover and many others to to see this divide. There is an opaque wall between the inards of the poet, what makes them tick, and "the work". It makes for interesting poetry but it also makes one wonder and leaves us unfilled at times.

Two new books of poetry/memoir have come out in the past six months that counter this trend and in fact revive the tradition of the journey book- be it interior journey or exterior or both. I for one hope this begins a trend toward more "there" and substance in poetry and a move toward more texture and glimpses into the interiors of the poets.

Jennifer Moxley's, The Middle Room, is a seminal work for our time I think. It is a calm memoir about the journey of a person toward poetry. I have written allot about Moxley's book here on the blog. But my enthusiasm remains strong. Moxley's poetry and her memoir is a great antidote to the depth of opaqueness that we are forced so often to endure in poetry. Her work opens up an old way. Her work is also a harbinger of a different future. It was said in the 1950's three books were harbingers of the future- On the Road, The Seven Storey Mountain, and HOWL. These three books set up in the 1950's the debate for the next years, Journeys, Tradition leading to radicalism. I think Moxley's book is important because it stands as a response to the depersonalization of our age. That is the trend that Moxley's work stands against and this makes it important.

Gabriel Gudding's Rhode Island Notebook is also seminal. Gudding has reclaimed Maleness from the fascists. Most male poets writing today are consciously neutered. Gudding makes a claim on the journey book by putting all the banalities into collage and parataxis. His work opens up a reflective quality that we do not see in poetry today. Poetry today is more apt to be filled with obscurity and not interior quality. Gudding changes all of this and makes us listen to the questing of a poet whose strengths lay in the variety of his experience.

I am not saying that the ironic hipster poetry is finished. But perhaps vapidity is finished?
I hope that those poets who wish to expose themselves the way that so many have in the past and want to open up the journey to their readers will spend time with Moxley and Gudding and learn from the mastery of these works.

Wrigley Field- The Local in a Global World

In Chicago we are not terribly exorcised about the loss of major works of architecture, or the fact that our taxes are high what really upsets us is the fact that Sam Zell- owner of the Tribune and the Cubs might sell naming rights to Wrigley Field.

I admit that I am very biased- as a White Sox fan who only went to Wrigley when I was 38 two years ago and then went there to see my White Sox. I do not have a dog in this fight. But I must say that there are a whole range of lamentable things that go against the local in our global world and demean what it means for places to be unique- here is my list;

Things that Do Violence to a Sense of Place

1) The Mc Donalds on Piazza Spagna in Rome which sits one block from the Spanish Steps is this really neccessary? Do we need to sell Big Macs in Rome?

2) The Pizzeria Uno location in New York's East Village. Why?

3) The Fact that Marshall Fields in Now Macy's

4) Everything in Dallas, Texas above Lovers Lane

5) All of Orlando, Florida

6) The Kentucky Fried Chicken on Nanking Road in Shanghai

7) Starbuck's in France

8) The Mc Donald's that Overlooks Hagia Sofia in Istanbul.

9) The fact that most local bookstores are closing.

10) The Fact that I can buy the same food everywhere.

While I do not like Wrigley Field or the Cubs, I remember what is was like to have Comiskey Park torn down- that wound was not salved until October of 2005, a World Series will do that.

But the loss of place and uniqueness is one of our great losses.

Moxley X

So Ron Silliman linked to my Blog- that is amazing.

So I continue to read this Moxley book and I continue to use it almost as a Biblical Text. The way that a Monk uses the Brevary to meditate on his vocation. I meditate on mine and I am challenged as a poet to be more as a Catholic is challenged to be more by reading the lives of the saints.

The work has a juvenile quality; this is not normally found among poets of our generation X. I am reminded of that section in Merton's Seven Storey Mountain where he describes American colleges in October all being fresh and all lassitude removed from the air. That is what Moxley is doing she is giving a crispness to her work and so it is not narcissism but rather reflection.

So many of our contemporary poets are enamoured with irony here I am thinking of Judith Goldman, Jennifer Scappettone, Rebecca Wolfe whose work is filled with irony but as if it is to protect their souls from examination. We want to know more about the interior life of these poets but an opaque wall is there keeping us out. We should not get a chance to see what kind of soul produced the poems.

While in Moxley's memoir we get a glimpse into a soul it is as if Gertrude Stein wrote a mid career biography an answered questions. I go back and read Moxley's work and the context makes all of it work and seem so much more important.

I am convinced that when literary history is written and they ask what it was like to be a poet in this time when poetry is essential and irrelivant to the greater society this book The Middle Room will be cited in a way that will be essential to understanding the screwed up literary world where hipsterness and mediocrity is rewarded and good work is marginalized.

When in the future they ask why were the mediocrities revered they will look at Moxley and say here in that time was a poet who mattered and whose work will endure. She has set the tone for what comes next.

More on Moxley's Autobio

I continue to read Moxley's book during my lunch breaks and before bed. I am moved continually by how different we as poets today are different from our antecedents.

Poets and other artists before our contemporary times could dwell on the margins and reengage with poetry or other artforms after a fine gestation. Today the contemplative is not the goal of most poets. The goal of most poets is to be engaged via the net, small presses and social contacts so that you can continue to be relevant to the poetic conversation. As if quiet would cause us to become more irrelivent if this were possible?

The life that so many poets have lived in the past where poetry was important to their lives but they also lived apart from poetry is gone forever . There are no more William Carlos Williams or Wallace Stevens because their lifestyle could not fit into the contemporary poetic paradigm. We need always to be engaged.

Moxley in someways is a bridge- and as a GenXer she is emblamatic of this "bridgeness". I continue to read this Auto Bio and I keep thinking about all the 'activity' I am involved in regarding poetry and how little of it has to do with the work. Moxley's 'work' has always been well crafted and insightful. I think often about the various women poets (The way pollock called Lee Krasner a damn good woman painter) who embody this sense.

I think as I continue to read Moxley's work I am impressed at her depth and interior life and how strong it is compared with recent poet memoirs I have read like Christian Wiman's book of essays that have a certain separation from depth and the interior while Moxley's work is depth and feels sometimes more like I am reading the Confessions than a memoir of a woman of my own time and my own space.

Browsing as Adventure

It has been announced that the BBC Worldservice will no longer broadcast to Europe, last year they cancelled service to the USA. I realize that this is the result of the internet and that the Service sells programming to outlets like NPR stations but it is a sad day.

I can honestly say that my first encounter with the world as a young person was with Shortwave radio. When I was in High School I broke a leg and (this was 1981) I had a Shortwave that I began to listen to allot because of an injury. I was mesmorized to listen to Radio Moscow, when Russia was still the enemy, Radio Havana and of course the BBC. I could actually discover a new country and listen to other opinions. When I lived in Bolivia after college I looked forward to listening to the Voice of America and BBC just to get more news. The days of Shortwave and unfiltered news are gone forever.

The BBC catalyst lead to so many things for me as a person. My sense of the world began to be shaped by listening to the odd nations and capitals on shortwave. I remember once I got a
QSL card (reception report confirmation) from Radio Vilnius in Soviet Lithuania and what a thrill that was for a kid from Chicago.

I think that it is the loss of seredipity and adventure that is destroying young people today. Bookstores, Radio Stations, Record Stores have all been either destroyed or narrowcasted. The chance for young people to find something out in a chance way has been removed or reduced by the world we live in now. We all have our 'playlist' and our 'presets'. I think there is something missing. I still find it a thrill to go to a really good bookstore and find something totally unexpected. My wife often complains about not being able to really browse and find a new piece of music because most of the good music stores are closed.

In the end chance meetings and chance encounters are being missed. Like getting lost on a drive and finding something new. We are poorer for the loss.

The Poets of My Generation

The greatest poets of my generation are women. Catherine Daly, Jen Hofer, Elizabeth Willis, Lisa Jarnot and most perfectly Jennifer Moxley. There must be something about those of us born between 1964 and 1974; maybe it was the drugs our parents took? There are some male poets who deign to ascend to these heights, Gabriel Gudding, Chris Glomski, Joshua Clover, others but all the good action is with female poets I think and we men are really the handmaids to their Sappho.

The fact that so many of our parents were in transition and that our generation sometimes called Generation X has given poetry something new is often ignored or worse. We still live in a poetical world dominated by Baby Boomer narcissism. Many of our poetic lodestars come from this world but I think in the long run the quiet juxopositional poets of our generation will be remembered well when so many periferal Language Poets will be recalled only for their oddness. All the Cyber Poetics of today would not be possible without those of us who grew up with Pong, Atari, Reagan and Hair Bands.

The other day I picked up the Middle Room by Jennifer Moxley. Moxley has always been a challenge for me. When I compare myself to her it is like an ordinary banal Catholic (me) being compared to St Francis- in all things Moxley is a superlative and her poetry is important but this memoir is something else it encapsulates a generation of people who are often ignored.

I am only half way through the Middle Room but when I read this juxtoposed against Christian Wiman's new memoir- Moxley and Wiman are the same age- I am struck by a commonality between them even though their poetic sense is opposite-

the sense of the world as a drawer of broken things.

The one thing that defines Generation X it is that the world is a drawer of broken things. We are a generation that bridges and our poets do the same. We are trying to put back together a world and to understand what has been lost and adopting what has been found.

If you look at a poet like Elizabeth Willis and her book Meteoric Flowers she too is bringing together a drawer of broken things and trying to make sense- to construct something that satisfies. Catherine Daly's book DA DA DA does the same fusing Catholic culture with postmodernity but putting together broken things and the questings of Jen Hofer in Mexico is a perfect mixing of the broken all these poets seem to be doing this.

Moxley's book is so personal.

Disturbingly so.

The Italian poet Andrea Zanzotto once said that the most unnatural thing is to smell the perfume of someone else's lover. That is what reading this book is like. I almost feel like I am violating some secret or some private thing in reading the book. But as a poet who is approximately the same age I can feel the memoir because it is part of my history. Moxley has captured the sense of so many of us who are in our late 30's and early 40's.

The Middle Room is in short a spirituality of poetry that has been lacking in our generation. I have found that I like to read Moxley's book along side Gabriel Guddings Rhode Island Notebook to get both a female and make sides of a generation that is too often ignored while the young hipsters dialogue with Charles Bernstein and Ron Silliman. Moxley has done what Gudding did he captured Maleness for our generation Moxley has captured Poesie for our generation and it is a book that does more than just divulge it encompasses as well.

Moxley has given us a book that gives us a sense of Metanoia.

A change of heart towards literature and poetry. I am going to continue to blog on this book because I simply cannot put it down --it is like reliving my own history and the history of a generation.

I will return to this book in the near future....