I also agree with most of what Perloff says, but I think her opening sentence is misrepresenting what Evans said. What Evans wants is not that sort of engagement (i.e. the kind of engagement that many of us have had with it) but a far more immersive and uncritical engagement, something closer to what later became the performance poetry/ rap nexus (though I'm not sure what he thinks of that either). I think it's a kind of fantasy on Evans' part, but it's a fantasy that did have legs, and it ripples through some of the marginalised poetry scenes, especially those connected with Goth.

Cheers

Tim

On 16 Jan 2018, at 17:37, Jeffrey Side wrote:

Marjorie Perloff

A. C. Evans is quite right to complain about the purported denial of “voice” in contemporary poetry, but the issue is not, I think, the refusal to engage with popular culture.