I enjoyed the cat poems Douglas because there is an authenticity to them and
much about the human condition revealed.
I don't agree there has to be a story but there has to be something
revealed, either personally or universaly.
Claire
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, November 06, 2002 6:54 PM
Subject: bpNichol
> I think I should say something about egotism in poetry
> and it has to be personal.
>
> My physical and mental illnesses along with defects in
> character and ability make a strong ego vital, and it
> comes out when I write. When depression weakens the ego
> then the whole system risks coming to a halt resulting
> in mental collapse. So I have to hang on to the 'I'
> when I write like a lifebelt.
>
> So for people like me, and there are many of us, it would
> be absolutely crazy to follow this fashion in contemporary
> poetry for eliminating the personal 'I'. And I just read in
> the London Times this morning that Stephen Jay Gould said
> in his last book that we are designed to tell stories, as
> does Steven Pinker in 'The Blank Slate' and Antonio DAmasio
> in his book on Consciousness, and stories are spoken by the
> egoristical 'I'. I feel it is people who cant tell stories
> who invent this new theorising.
>
> Basically my poetry is at a dead end these years because
> I have run out of stories from my own life and if I started,
> as I did this summer, in writing down my friends stories
> I would feel I was intruding on their personal lives
> and would be very embarrassed if they found out about it.
>
> But ultimately poetry is about quality of language, like
> Gabe's L.B., and the story is just a peg to hang it on.
> But without a story there can be no meaningful poetry.
>
> Must go to the supermarket. Sorry to bore you.
> And then I am going to see Peter WEir's 'Simone'.
>
>
>
> Douglas Clark, Bath, England mailto: [log in to unmask]
> Lynx: Poetry from Bath ..........
http://www.bath.ac.uk/~exxdgdc/lynx.html
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