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Frank Parker
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Dear Ak, you bring up two separate points in your email, one regarding
"voice", one regarding FICTIONS OF FORM IN AMERICAN POETRY, and both move me
to write in response.

Regarding "voice" Finnegan's statement seems very clear:
>"voice," I believe, is just critical shorthand for what we (readers)
>find in the work of a poet that distinguishes
>his/her poetry from that of another poet

No matter how many different ways a writer can write, I know that, say, a
Robin Blaser poem is a Robin Blaser poem. I've been told that I write poems
in different ways, too, but that a Frank Parker poem is distinctly a Frank
Parker poem.

Further, the matter of me finding my "voice" was/is, in essence, a matter of
shedding overt imitation and influences in favor of speaking from what is
genuinely me. It's the growing process of a young poet to a more mature
poet. As Bob Dylan said "we emulate to learn". But comes a time we sing our
own songs. There's no mystery about that.

>...and (2) I have a hard time with the phrase "finding
> one's voice."

Me too! I think way too much attention is given over to the idea. Get over
it and move on, I say. Anything else is arrested development.

As to Stephen Cushman's FICTIONS OF FORM IN AMERICAN POETRY I simply have
never read such gibberish in all my life! I've read the section you quote
six times and still do not find it saying anything with any bearing on the
reality of American verse.

When I read:
>Acc. to them, the Am poet overvalues form as a defense
>against the recognition of this essential truth: "Every Am
>poet who aspires to strength knows that he starts in the
>eveningland, realizes he is a latecomer, fears to be only
>a secondary man."
I nearly fell off my chair with laughter! Every American poet? Fears? Give
me a break! No one is a late comer to their own life. And I know no Am poet
who lives or writes from such considerations. I would venture to say that Am
poetry of the 20th century contributed to and advanced poetry in general
tremendously. No self-consciousness there.

Thank you for your thought provoking message, Ak.
best
:fp

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Frank Parker
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http://now.at/frankshome