Bang: Reread Louise in Love.
One of her key workshop revision exercises is to recommend taking two
non-working poems and smash them together, suspending sense.
She also -- I don't know if they are in a collection -- for about a
year used writing answering submissions for theme issues of journals
as writing exercise. I.e., write a poem about television for journal
x; write a poem about cows for journal y.
Cole Swensen's newer work is almost entirely found in some way. Oh,
Try, Book of 100 Hands, Such Rich Hour, Park, Ours... Look at the
source together with the poetry. You'll find descriptions of what
appears on the source page, translations from the French source,
findings from critics together with quotes from the operas. I'm not
saying it is bad, but that it is procedural -- pick a thing and so the
Swensen -- and that younger poets are starting to do it with
increasing frequency, because it generates a very coherent and
researched collection of poems with less effort.
--
All best,
Catherine Daly
[log in to unmask]
|