Allen's letter to Christopher Alexander intrigued me, for I assume that
this is the architectural Alexander, whose method of teaching arch is to
project a long process of living in spaces and then shaping them within a
dialogue with the space and its inhabitants. I don't know how he would
actually teach projects, but am always impressed with the way in which good
architectural courses work, through projects that are both attentive to
constraints and encourage invention, while always reminding students of the
audience and presentation of ideas, as well as the future buildings to be
made. Teaching writing, as I do this morning, we are locked into many
timetable fitments that simply discourage project teaching. We can only
meet briefly in groups, and students have no base to which they can attach
ready for discussion on one to one bases. We still do good work but against
the grain. I should add that this is prose not poetry.
I used Messerli's anthology last year for an ordinary poetry
course, and although during the course I thought they were finding it too
hard, afterwards a number of students all said that it was great to be
introduced to work so unlike what they had read before. I resorted to the
anthology only reluctantly, since like others I much prefer to teach single
books. In the past I ended up with too many xeroxes, and they are
offputting. Looking backward as much as memory serves, I would say that
apart from Donald Allan's anthology (and perhaps more so, Rothenberg's
America a Prophecy which I realise now I dont think of as an "anthology"
because it seems to have such a strong narrative of its own, with headers
and interventions all the way), it was always books or readings that set me
off into a poet's work, and only occasionally magazine appearances. Somehow
single poems mostly work best when actively talking to similar species in
their own habitat.
I cant recall what I said to Allen about anthologies and am now
curious. On Tuesday I am giving a repeat of the UNH talk at Glasgow, and am
again struck by the way anthologisation seems inadequate in the face of the
need for informative debate and reading.
Must go, Peter.
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