Thanks for the added detail and clarifications. I don't receive any reports about Mary Jo
Bang, so two examples of her writing exercises help me gain a better sense of her
activity. With regard to Cole Swenson, I'll try what you suggest, but the closest she has
come to mentioning found poetry within my hearing has been to provide copies of French
poetry she's translated. Could you mention some younger poets who extrapolate from
Cole Swenson's example? So the coherency of such a collection in part results from
using one substantial book as a source?
Barry Alpert
On Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:22:38 -0800, Catherine Daly <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>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
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