Nate is correct in saying that at the outset of the book Keith Tuma
says that Americans should be more familiar with British poetry,
but sitting back at page 140 I feel that so far the tenor of the
book has said the very opposite.
What I am looking forward to is the discussion of EDward Kamau Brathwaite's
X/Self. When I read this back in 1987 I rushed out and bought Sun POem
and Mother POem, the precedents in the trilogy. X/Self is the best of
the three and I am sorry that his 90s book MIddle Passage (?) wasnt the
same class. X/Self is a tremendous book. Scanning through it just now
I see what is missing from most of `Other'. A feel for language.
Very few of the poets in Other have that and some only in a very
pedestrian way. Something akin to the poetry Keith TUma has been
quoting in his book (both mainstream and modernist). I just cant
understand why people cant respond to language. I saw language two
days ago in Nick Johnson's 80s poems in Land although I dont really
know how succesful he is at turning it into poems. There are people
who string words together (like me probably) then there are the very
gifted few who can write language.
I think I will go sit beside my sick cat now and read Kamau Brathwaite.
It may be one of the best things since BRiggflats and Mercian HYmns
may be X/Self.
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