AS/IS 2

What is the social utility of poetry?

"What's love got to do, got to do with it?"

One question:



Nature becomes fragmented?



No, two questions:



Objects terrible and alone?



No, three questions:



"am I aware that I take issue?"



No, four questions:



Is writing in long complete sentences?



No, five questions.



Why does R. Barthes make me sleepy?



No, six questions.



Interesting argument from both perspectives, per anyone?

1) Is there any room left today for poetry that is formally metered to be taken seriously?

2) Is there any room left today for poetry that actually holds to a strict standard of rhyming?

Can either of these forms (or both together) be taken seriously anymore, or are they out-dated? And if they are out-dated, can they be reinvigorated by a fresh poet?

the fastest, easiest way to end apathy?

cleaning my fishes' (fish'?) tank hasn't helped. neither has doing a load of laundry.

i hate college. someone speed me to 40, with a cat and goat in the backyard, and an honest-to-god outhouse, and an honest-to-god interest in camellias and jacaranda, so i can skip over all this bullshit.

you can read this as "alcoholism is still alcoholism, even if you do have an interesting haircut."

• Jean Vengua starts a new weblog - hippety hop!
  
• Vincent meditates on Proust
  
• Mark Young asks permission of the elders of our Turtle Island for his weblog name
  
• Eileen has some words of encouragement for Roethke
  
• Harry K. Stammer makes big poems in Little Tokyo
  
• Benedict is amazed
  
• Silliman on the distinction between trobar clus and trobar leu & its implications for modern poetry
  
• Billy Ryan's run-in with authority
  
• Nick goes mad moving
  
• Brooke plugs a brand new (soon to be world famous) zine
  
• Woman and insect collide
  
• Brennan on Antin
  
• Crag Hill on Bob Grunman's "Doing Long Division by Poetry"
  
• Tim Yu offers fashion tips

1) If you could have dinner with any poet, living or dead, which would you choose?
2) If you were a zombie at the WCU Poetry Conference whose brains would you eat first?
3) Who would be your dream celebrity judges for the World Poetry Idol Competition?
4) Who is absolute?
5) What would you replace the chicken with?

Things in my personal life right now are extremely hectic. As it is I scarcely have the time to update & maintain my own weblog, never mind do all the work for administrating this one as well. If someone would like to lend a hand as co-administrator, please email me. The only qualifications are the time to do it, some enthusiasm & the ability to look sexy in old track pants. Thanks!

1. Deconstruction is to L= poetry as dogs are to Greek Gods.

2. To avoid the inevitable pitfalls, As/IsII must keep an active sense of humor and not devolve into flame wars.

3. The ideal poet's computer would have links to my favorite blogs, including my own.

4. The tonal quality is a flux of one's passions and intelligence.

5. If Jim Behrle's in love we must all do our best to stay out of his cartoons.

1) Deconstruction is to L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry as dogs are to _____________ .
2) To avoid the inevitable pitfalls, As/Is II must _____________________________.
3) The ideal poet's computer would have _________________.
4) The tonal quality is a flux of _______________ .
5) If Jim Berhle is in love we must all do our best to _______________ .

Some thots on branding in poetry, after reading Silliman's latest entry & about the (ridiculously) vitriolic reactions:

• poetic anonymity - esp. the use of monikers - is akin to D.J.s using stage names
  
• poetry slammers often use names similar to those of hip-hop artists, who as they are often African-American, are often quite savy to the use of marketing - many hip-hop artists will admit that their act is just that - an act - while more hypocritical pop artists are claiming to be themselves
  
• poetry is very similar to marketing - as someone who does door-to-door sales - the most direct, in-your-face form of marketing there is - I find the skills often overlap
  
• Walt Whitman was not Walter Whitman
  
• Karl Marx™ was not a Marxist
  
• I fear that Silliman may be relegating a certain phenonemon among a number of poets - that of going by a "cute" name on their weblogs - unnecessarily to the margins by his dismissal of it - I suspect there is more there than one might suspect - in an earlier posting he compared these names to tattoos, in that they will be something that one will regret later - but what about the many, many people who do not regret getting tattoos, and take them on as an important aspect of their identity, indeed even an art form?

in the dim hour
my headache
sliced the universe
into raging splattering red holes
modern enough
for your morgue?

billy jno hope seeds

Only lips--
that kiss--
can part--
to release--
the loving--
tongue--
that speaks.

Only
the hand
that masturbates
can write.