Lovely piece on Webb, Jill (whom I consider to be one of the greatest, & certainly an influence on me. I actually first saw & read Naked Poems in early 1967, copies brought back to Ontario form Vancouver by someone who had gone out there over the Christmas holidays. Read it & thought: If I can write one line as good as these in my lifetime I will have done it).
Webb not political? Ha. She actually ran for the sociailist party once, but the poems do speak politics, as well as so much else, of course. I wrote about her ghazals in my Lyric / Anti-lyric. You finding Naked Poems somewhere is a coup. That's just a beautiful object, that book. Even before you read the poems. Which Robert Kroetsch nominated as perhaps the long poem that helped start the form anew in Canada: seeing it as, among other things, 'a short long poem'; & as 'a way out, perhaps a way out of the ending of lyric too, with its ferocious principles of closure, a being compelled out of lyric by lyric.' Something like you are saying. An amazing book, as is Water and Light.
I can only be glad that you found her. I wish more had done so, but she has always been published by small Canadian presses.
Doug
On 2012-08-28, at 6:15 AM, Andrew Burke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Thanks for reading the books, both Jill and Bill.
>
> Yes, Jill, people do praise your work on that blog, I say as a past
> blogger, but hardly anyone comments. Too hard? Some hurdles? I had a number
> of emails, but very few comments. I'll 'comment' just to bring numbers up.
>
> Andrew
>
> On 28 August 2012 19:05, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Thanks, Jill. Some ripe thoughts here. I too was impressed with the
>> physical sensation of holding Andrew Burke's Undercover of Lightness. Soon
>> I may even open it.
>>
>> Just kidding. Andrew, I too have 'stood in Australia's backyard/and felt
>> the feet that have gone before' me.
>>
>> It shouldn't matter I suppose but I too, Jill, am put off by today's
>> oversized novel formats which no longer slip into the back pocket.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Bill
>>
>> On 28/08/2012, at 2:23 PM, Jill Jones wrote:
>>
>>> Hi all,
>>>
>>> I've been a bit busy and distracted recently. Just got back from Qld
>>> where I was being a poet at a festival.
>>>
>>> But - thought you might be interested in some posts I'm doing this
>>> month as blogger for the Australian literary journal, Southerly.
>>>
>>> http://southerlyjournal.com.au/
>>>
>>> First post was about some poetry books. About the book object, so not
>>> a review, though I mention books by 4 Australian poets and one
>>> American published in the UK.
>>>
>>> Second post is a short homage to Phyllis Webb, not analytic just an
>>> effusion on a couple of things, with an initial sidestep towards
>>> Ashbery's prose.
>>>
>>> Third post - not there when I looked, but in the pipelines, maybe
>>> tomorrow - will be a bit about the Qld Poetry Fest, mainly thoughts
>>> about writing place, with reference to a number of poets and poems but
>>> especially a. rawlings (another Canadian!) and Nick Powell, emerging
>>> Aust poet
>>>
>>> A fourth is still in my head but am hoping it eventuates in the next
>>> 24 hours, and then appears before end of week, end of month.
>>>
>>> If you like anything there, be lovely to get a comment on the blog.
>>> But have a read anyway.
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Jill
>>>
>>> ________________________
>>> Jill Jones
>>> www.jilljones.com.au
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Andrew
> http://hispirits.blogspot.com/
> 'Undercover of Lightness'
> http://walleahpress.com.au/recent-publications.html
> 'Shikibu Shuffle'
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/new-from-aboveground-press-shikibu.html
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
http://eclecticruckus.wordpress.com/
Latest books:
Continuations & Continuations 2 (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=962
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
Why can’t words mean what they say?
Robert Kroetsch
|