Discovering some old poems in a box has caused me to think about the occasional poem, so I'm going to abandon all fears of 'the confessional' and 'hip intelligence' and write a whole bunch. One a day to be precise. Is that occasional enough for you?
Show no fear of the occasion. Will these be posted here, or saved up against the ruins of time?
The problem with occasional poems is not the response to the moment, which is sort of what that whole proprioceptive school was asking for, but coming across them years later and finding all the resonances stayed back in the time (like a movie-of-the-week of that great Grand Canyon rescue episode).
It's my own shorthand for those writers, from Olson's projective verse to Appelbaum's more recent theories, who talk about proprioception as the means by which to ground a poem or other art work in the moment -- knowing where the body is in relation to the world surrounding it unconsciously. Olson did an essay and a series of poems on it, republished in his Collected Prose I think. The TISH guys all talked about their writing (and Olson's) through the concept -- and didn't Lisa Robertson have a bookstore by that name?
I use proprioceptive school, rather than the more usual "projective verse", just because PV tends to point more directly at Olson, whereas proprioception connects that strain to a broader school of writers interested in the consciousness of the body in their poetics.
Show no fear of the occasion. Will these be posted here, or saved up against the ruins of time?
ReplyDeleteThe problem with occasional poems is not the response to the moment, which is sort of what that whole proprioceptive school was asking for, but coming across them years later and finding all the resonances stayed back in the time (like a movie-of-the-week of that great Grand Canyon rescue episode).
Bring out your wounded and unwind.
GB
It's my own shorthand for those writers, from Olson's projective verse to Appelbaum's more recent theories, who talk about proprioception as the means by which to ground a poem or other art work in the moment -- knowing where the body is in relation to the world surrounding it unconsciously. Olson did an essay and a series of poems on it, republished in his Collected Prose I think. The TISH guys all talked about their writing (and Olson's) through the concept -- and didn't Lisa Robertson have a bookstore by that name?
ReplyDeleteI use proprioceptive school, rather than the more usual "projective verse", just because PV tends to point more directly at Olson, whereas proprioception connects that strain to a broader school of writers interested in the consciousness of the body in their poetics.