CORRECTION CORRECTION
I seem to have written automatically - he bubbled at the interval, not the
interview
L
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lawrence Upton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 13 June 2001 10:08
Subject: Re: A Conversation with Carl Rakosi
| I saw Rakosi a few years back (I'd seen him in the 70s too I think), when
he
| was only 93... the young person introducing offered to assist but he shook
| the arm away politely... he leaned on a lectern which they wanted to move
so
| he said _so move it_ or something like... they took the lectern away and
he
| remained standing...
|
| he bubbled at the interview, introducing people to his girlfriend
|
| and he read from his work from its beginning... it gave me temporal
| vertigo... and in a strong and constantly modulated voice
|
| L
|
|
| ----- Original Message -----
| From: "Frank Parker" <[log in to unmask]>
| To: <[log in to unmask]>
| Sent: 13 June 2001 05:13
| Subject: A Conversation with Carl Rakosi
|
|
| | Carl Rakosi may be San Francisco's best kept secret. At 96 he's sharper
| than
| | ever and surely one of the most joyous voices on the entire Coast. And
yet
| | the City just doesn't seem to realize who they have there. Steve
Dickison
| | interviewed Carl at his home for The Poetry Center recently and I invite
| you
| | to read the interview. I've included links for further exploration too,
| one
| | from Modern American Poetry and one from JACKET. And books by Carl can
be
| | found at Small Press Distribution:
| | http://www.spdbooks.org (enter Rakosi, Carl for an author search).
| |
| | I've been a fan ever since I found a dog eared copy of AUMULET in a used
| | book store 25 years ago. Since then I've had occasion to meet and hear
him
| | read. What's not to love about this man? So, dear listees, thank you for
| | putting up with my enthusiasm when a new interview comes out.
| | best
| | :fp
| |
| | A Conversation with Carl Rakosi by Steve Dickison
| | http://www.sfsu.edu/~newlit/news/rakosi.htm
| |
| | (extract:)
| | The nearly eighty-year publishing history of American poet Carl Rakosi
| | begins in the early 1920s, with a number of poems in a college magazine,
| at
| | the University of Wisconsin in Madison, then in several national
| periodicals
| | and "little magazines." An invitation from Louis Zukofsky to contribute
to
| | the "Objectivists" issue of Poetry magazine (February 1931) was followed
| by
| | inclusion in An "Objectivists" Anthology (1932), published in France by
| | George and Mary Oppen's small expatriate press, To, Publishers. He,
| | Zukofsky, Oppen, and Charles Reznikoff would be known henceforth as the
| core
| | group of "Objectivist" poets. Mr Rakosi dropped out of poetry publishing
| | between 1941 and the mid-sixties, devoting himself to social work. Since
| his
| | return to poetry, books of new and collected earlier work have been
| brought
| | out by New Directions, Black Sparrow, the National Poetry Foundation,
and
| | Sun & Moon, among others. Still prolific as he approaches his 96th
| birthday,
| | Mr Rakosi has had two recent books published in England by etruscan
books:
| | The Earth Suite (1997) and The Old Poet's Tale (1999)-the latter the
first
| | of three volumes planned for publication as his Collected Works.
| | * * * *
| | And at the Modern American Poetry site more from and about Carl Rakosi:
| | http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/m_r/rakosi/rakosi.htm
| |
| | (extract:)
| | Kent Johnson
| |
| | Many of his more recent and powerful poems, like "The Menage," "Yaddo,"
| | "Lying in Bed on a Summer Morning," "In What Sense I am I," "Ginger,"
and
| | "Associations with a View from the House," are among the most direct
| | engagements of the problematics of subject/object relations within the
| | Objectivist canon.
| |
| | [. . . .]
| |
| | For Rakosi, being fully participant in that mystery of the "outer," also
| | implies a need to regard the subject’s desires and speculations with a
| sense
| | of modesty. While meditations on the nature of cognition and knowledge
in
| | our poetry have often been a province for melancholic seriousness if not
| | outright existential angst, Rakosi--and with remarkable frequency--makes
| | them into occasions for self-effacement and an easy acceptance of the
| | unknown. In poems like "The Menage" or "How to Be with a Rock" (which
may
| | well be a take-off on Stevens's solemn and celebrated poem), he shows
| | himself to be our happiest—and sometimes funniest—philosophical poet.
| | * * * *
| | And Carl Rakosi at JACKET online (good photo!):
| | http://www.jacket.zip.com.au/jacket01/rakosi01.html
| |
| | ***************
| | Frank Parker
| | [log in to unmask]
| | http://now.at/frankshome
| |
|
|