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I've always liked the reminder posed by Dennis Phillips that language poets are specific people, writing in a specific time. An historical set of facts and accomplishments that had a strong influence, and maintain a strong influence, over people writing in the periods then and following. Many times, people characterize themselves as "language poets" - but I have never felt comfortable doing what feels like *invading an historical moment*, as it were. Sheila On Mon, Apr 6, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Frederick Pollack <[log in to unmask]>wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Weiss" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Monday, April 06, 2009 6:20 PM > Subject: Re: Dead ends > > > The reader also begins and ends in a state of becoming. >> >> I'm not a language poet. >> >> > > Didn't think you were a langpo. More tolerant of them, probably. As for > the reader also beginning and ending in a state of becoming, that hardly > disproves my argument. The mind-set for reading poetry and even a large > part of the responses to a given poem are also pre-set, conventional. It's > very hard to engineer a new emotion or insight. As for reading, I think I > do a fair bit. What I won't do is admire something simply to be au courant. >