Ay yi yi.
I am not defending that poem, Mark, not really. It is one of her 'glosa'
poems, as the other Mark pointed out, & some of them are much better. I
suspect the poem was chosen because it was 'about' the world. I would argue
that glosa can be acts of discovery, working toward & away from the lines
already there from the other poem. But this one? Ah, no, I confess, it
isn't much. But, as I said, I suspect a) that it 'fits' the political
assumptions, & b) maybe Hacker could only choose from what was sent in,
there wasn't much, & she, as at her best a fine highly formalist poet,
likes the form. Maybe?
I also suspect that if I were in Hacker's position I would have had a very
hard time, but then I'd never be in that position, & if I were I'd ask that
I be allowed to 'choose' from poems I knew from my years of reading...
On the other hand, as I think about it, I'm not sure I have, at my
fingertips, any poems that would 'fit'.. precisely because the poems I love
don't speak to such a forum... (except maybe somewhat subversively...)
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
Someone to talk to, for God's sake, some-
thing to love that will never hit back
Phyllis Webb
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