AS/IS 2

Sometimes
my penis
is a girl.

Sometimes
my penis
is a boy.

What
difference
does this

make
in
poetry?

What is it
about poetry
that you love--

I mean
really love.

What, if anything, is absolutely unique to poetry as a genre?

1) . . . professional lariat twirlers.
2) . . . each proclaimed its own hierarchy: put b first, put c last, provided only etymologies. . . .
3) . . . detonations of what Oprah would recognize whole.
4) . . . leash, for I am the little dog that knows you.
5) . . . stipulate to the boundaries of my suspension of disbelief.

1) Weblogs are to mountain goats as spitoons are to ________________ .
2) Dictionaries would be better if they _____________________ .
3) Writing experiments are ________________ .
4) When I hear the term "post- avant garde" I reach for my _______________.
5) The sentence must ______________ .

At work today the Boss was giving a lecture on sales tactics & offered up an interesting approach of "Feel / Felt / Found".

Customer: Well I don't want to help you out because of blah blah blah... Salesperson: Well I understand that you would feel blah blah blah, I myself felt blah blah blah but then I found that blah blah blah..."

I later thought about it & see that it might be applied to a poem's structure. For example (and I am writing this off-the-cuff)

I understand how
you feel about finding
me in bed with your
2 minutes younger
twin sister.

Other's, as well,
would have experienced
similar feelings
of murderous intent.

Still, research has
shown that 97% of
all infedelity can
be traced to alcohol.

It's your fault for not
locking up the liquor cabinet.

If nothing else it seems a solid structure to work into a poem that may require one, similar to the sonnet's rhetorical structure of "If... Then... Therefore...".

• write a poem with the refrain "the year I was born" detailing the events of the year you were born
  
• unpredictable reverberations of the psyche
  
• use knowledge management software to disturb yr usual syntax, eg Axon Idea Processor, Plumb Visual Thesaurus etc.
  
• draw a Durer's grid on yr window, perhaps even in indelible ink (if you rent) & write about each square & everything that happens in it for one hour
  
• the 'pataphysics of can-openers
  
• a timeline history of the Universe in verse form
  
• imitations of imitations, like photocopies see how far it can go until there is only a black smudge
  
• write a letter to the credit agency explaining why you will not be paying them this month - quote liberally from Ezra Pound's economic theories
  
• exact revenge sweetly
  
• unfilmable absurdist film scripts - think "Reality is What You Can Get Away With" by Robert Anton Wilson

what is the name of pea soup?

what is the name all other food items?



not listed - not an existential question

as is although i too experience

association



singing



"still in love with symbols,

doesn't have to be the real Elvis

just an Elvis"

Only 24 hours since starting this baby & already we have discussion, enlightenment, suggestions, input & confusion. It's set up now so you can post yr title & url - thanks Harry for the suggestion.

Reading Ron's comments tickled many of the ideas I already had in my mind. It is not difficult for me to imagine a far, far distant future where a half charred book of Robert Bly's, another by Rabindrath Tagore, and a third by Robin Blaser, are all that survive of pre-20th C. poetry. Distant literary historians would, no doubt, attempt to reconstruct our poetic climate from this. Imagine if even there names were erased, all that survived was a copy of Norton's Anthology of Postmodern American Poetry, with no names or attributions. That in itself would require a new seeing, a new approach to the text. My question is, what would your advice to the future literary historians/critics be, standing over this tiny pile of books left over from the cold ashes of a nuclear winter long since past? Our literary history begins with fragments of scrolls & shards - it may well end in fragments of electrons & ideas.

I tend to agree with Silliman on his use of real names in blogging. My blogroll, which was "borrowed" from Silliman's list originally, and later pruned for defunct blogs or ones I actively disliked for one reason or another, and added to as I became aware of interesting blogs even if I rarely read them, as much as possible uses real names. Ron mentions the difference between "generic oatmeal from your supermarket is not the same as Quaker Oats, which, more often than not, also manufactured that generic brand. " An interesting comparison. I'm struck that in taste tests people will often claim to detect differences between two colas that are the exact same brand. If the test (I originally mistyped that as "text" and perhaps should have kept error as a deeper truth) forces us to make false distinctions, perhaps our poetic tastes should be considered with the same level of reliability.

Hello! I have been translating Japanese poetry for the last few months, and so don't have much else on the brain - but I can't wait to share some of the work I've discovered! (They are being published very soon in HOW2 and Aufgabe, but I can't wait!)

So here is a poem by Chika Sagawa - she lived from 1911-1936. Some people consider her the first female Japanese Modernist poet (everyone else says ' There were any?') but her work was completely ahead of her time, really amazing and beautiful...

__________

Circulation

A fence dirtied by dust continues,
Leaves turn from red to yellow.
Recollections accumulate upon the path of memory. As if spreading white linen.
Seasons have four keys, slide down the stairs. The entrance is shut again.
The blue tree is hollow. When hit, it sounds.
While night sneaks out.
That day,
I am sad like the skin of the boy in the sky.
Eternity cuts between us.
I lose countless images to that other side.

1) When at family reunions people ask me what I "really" do when I inform them I am a poet I tell them my day job doesn't pay enough.
2) The problem with poetry today is it has nothing to do with elections.
3) When I hear the expression "inner poet" in a self-help context I want to shove Leaves of Grass down someone's throat.
4) If I was poet laureate of my nation my first official act would be to appoint as many other poets as I can poet laureates .
5) Poetry contests are worse than presidential elections.

thrown broken sofa dump sub in fatho ey
thistle

something stunk and it wasn't me

my dog picked up some foul odor
she shouldered right into it and rolled

why are we doing this as a blog, and not a listserv?

possible answers:

1. Listservs are too complicated to set up.
^^ Less linear
<;)))>< I feel less compulsion to respond to you.
&&&& I feel obligated to respond to you
% My e-mail box is full enough as it is
$ I have enough blogs as it is
&&& hunger for ____ is endless aghhh

what is the value of pea soup?
what is the value all other food items?

not listed - not an existential question
as is although i too experience
hunger

Question, Part II (the Sequel):

What is the value of such a practice? Is there a downside to stringent writing rituals?

Question:

How do you maintain a daily writing practice? Or, do you maintain a daily writing practice?

Finish the following sentences:

1) When at family reunions people ask me what I "really" do when I inform them I am a poet I tell them _________________.
2) The problem with poetry today is________________.
3) When I hear the expression "inner poet" in a self-help context I want to ______________.
4) If I was poet laureate of my nation my first official act would be to _____________ .
5) Poetry contests are ______________ .

how are things as/is?

Welcome two As/Is².