Take me through the poem in detail when you've had the sleep then.
I've thought of some other laundry poems, perhaps as derisively
decorative as Page's. Ginsberg's ditty "Homework" uses the
same trope as Page's, and Wilbur's--well, you know that one,
and it calls you to the basket weaving of the world, I guess.
Ginsberg and Wilbur (allied here for the first time) would
probably say that their poetry is also one of discovery. How
do you know it's not?
Mark Baker
Mark Weiss wrote:
> I don't know the Spanish original, but on the basis of the translation (and
> Bellitt tends to destroy whatever he touches) it's not one of Neruda's
> best. But comparison with the Neruda was, I would have thought clearly,
> neither my strategy nor my point.
>
> Poems for me are of no value unless they're the process of discovery.
> That's what I care about and assume Doug cares about. This, on the
> otherhand, is workshop basket weaving (apologies to any basketweavers out
> there). One may build a lifetime career on such, but one doesn't build
> poems in the sense I've indicated. Butn perhaps these verses are an
> aberration--I don't know other of her poems.
>
> I wasn't criticizing her "ends," I was criticizing her poem, but the ends
> seem dubious enough--to make a confection out of a set of "poetic"
> mannerisms.
>
> This poem is at best decorative.
>
> I assume you disagree, or maybe you think that decorativeness is enough.
>
> I wish I had time to go thru the poem in detail for you, but I don't--it's
> that or get a decent night's desperately needed sleep.
>
> Mark
>
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