Sic Transit Wetlandia

On Tuesday, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the suit by a class of environmental and indigenous organizations to invalidate the environmental impact statement for the construction of the South Lawrence Trafficway, a proposed six-lane superhighway that will barrel through one of the most ecologically rich and sensitive areas in northeast Kansas, the Haskell-Baker Wetlands in south Lawrence. (It has been argued that this road is part of the larger plan for the "I-35 NAFTA Corridor," from the Mexican to Canadian borders).

But here are today's responses on the Facebook page for the Wetlands Preservation Organization, the group created to defend the Haskell-Baker wetlands:

A.)  Time to take A STAND
Rally the peeps
N StOP it by force

B.)  OH, NO!!!! What do we do now? Darn, I am in Vermont when you need me to lie down in front of the bulldozers!!! I am sad to not be there, very sorry. Oh, my, horrible. What is our next step????

C.)  Shame on them.

D.) this is not right. There are plenty of roads why do they not realize once u destroy a natural setting it will never be the same. So sorry to hear this unfortunate decision has been made.

E.) Sad.

A.)  How come everyone talks like its over ? There's children's graves to be protect n a tipi site there's precious life to be protected
Civil Disobedience NOW
Our prayers our Strength
It's time for ACTION
Diplomacy ended
Yrs ago damnit

F.)  Based on my personal experience, I'm afraid that direct action/civil disobedience doesn't work in Lawrence anymore. The powers-that-be just ignore the protesters who get arrested and continue to do as they please. This fight has been going on for 25 years and I thought that the powers-that-be would ultimately give up. But I was wrong. Their egos and greed are just too big.Plus, there is the greed of the land speculators, developers, bankers and Chamber of Commerce. The highway engineers also have big egos and don't want to admit they were wrong. The Obama Administration could have killed it using the Environmental Justice Executive Order but they didn't. KU's chancellor could have blocked it by deed its 20 acres to HINU but she didn't despite repeated requests.

You'll notice that, with the exception of (A.) all the responses are apathetic, defeatist, hand-wringing, buck-passing. Part of that response can be attributed to the construction of a "remediation area" (great term) to the west of the wetlands - a kind of artificial wetlands designed as a consolation prize for environmentalists. Many of them have taken the bait, and given up on the historic wetlands themselves.

"There's you and your family, and that's your world. . . . People don't want to get involved. Everybody's concern is not to be concerned."

Those words were spoken in 1969, but they're just as true today. Except that time has now run out. Whatever.

"A" Poem

The owner of one of our local Chinese restaurants introduced us to "A" vegetable. Yes, "A" - apparently that English long vowel is how one pronounces 菜 - a tasty green (the way they prepare it at Panda Garden, anyhow). "It's easy to remember," she said: "it's a vegetable." Smiles all around: get it? The vowel, the article, and the proper noun are identical.

Which reminds me of a poem with a title that works the same way - whose author would undoubtedly have appreciated the bilingual play on words. Indeed, if it had happened to Zukofsky, it probably would have ended up in his Very Long Poem. He'd already written "Poem Beginning 'The,'" so he knew whereof he spoke, when it came to articles. Then this, from Rachel Blau DuPlessis' new book Purple Passages:

"The importance of verbal intensity to Zukofsky is shown in his response to L. S. Dembo's serious question: 'Do you conceive of ["A"] as having an overall structure?' Zukofsky turns the answer from large to small and from structure (scope, design, plan) to intricacy of diction, condensation of syntax, verbal focus: 'It's the detail that should interest you all the time.' Dembo is observing the sheer overall scale of the thing, its obvious daunting scope and largeness. Zukofsky answers by insisting on smallness and the local detail as sustaining interest."   (77)

Indeed, Dembo's question is the one we keep asking in our "A" discussion group (which I've affectionately dubbed "The 'A' Team" - precisely the opposite meaning of that letter than the one DuP. is insisting upon). But DuPlessis goes on to read Zukofsky's insistence on the micro as being in the midrashic tradition - but without its teleological premise. "The poem may supersede The Cantos," she writes, "but it cannot 'fulfill' itself - it can only be a perpetual midrash on its own ambition" (84).

All of which points up the obvious: It is "A", not "The". It's a poem amongst many poems, composed of thoughts, quotes, word selections among many available in the world (just another parole to the universe's langue). It's a poem that insists on its specificity, contingency, even randomness:

'I've walked thru
some years now
and never till you
said saw these panes'
he consoled with
'mere chance
that I looked'                    (from "A"-15, p. 363)

Does this mean that "A" is ultimately a nominalist poem, despite all the Spinozan and Aristotelian machinery? It's certainly not an ("a"?) humble poem. But it does seem cobbled together in a way I find congenial (as did those other cobblers [or bricoleurs], Duncan and Johnson). Centrifugal, not centripetal. Which is why it supersedes the Cantos (perhaps) and appeals to a reader born not much before both poems stopped: which, if we're into labels, would be tantamount to saying it is a pomo, not a modernist, long poem. It focuses on the anecdote for its own sake, rather than the grand recit.

And, appropriately enough for a poem in the midrashic tradition, I'm quite sure someone else has said all this (better) before. 

The H. is O.

So, who is the Poet Laureate of Global Climate Change? Has anybody really written about the changes taking place within the biosphere with the same force as Joy Williams did in Ill Nature and The Quick and the Dead? With the force of someone with Tourette's Syndrome? How come? I do love formal experiments with writing, whether involving procedural constraints or vocal torque. But our scramble systems do not seem to be taking hold in the way that triple-digit temperatures are.

Remember when the broadcaster in the radio version of War of the Worlds says something like "We'll keep broadcasting until the end"? And then asphyxiates from poison gas?

(of course, in the radio drama, that's just before the intermission, as I recall - the one where they remind everyone that it's a fiction. Which is the function of Fox News nowadays - )

Ron Silliman - what is to be done??

O Bon O Boy!

Finally got and read O Bon, by Brandon Shimoda (Litmus 2011) - the poems have a combination of delicacy and creepiness that's hard to get over. I wish I could write poems that used syntactic disjunction and reversals to such precise effect/affect. I'm also very interested in the relation of narrative to lyric here - just enough of the former to generate the latter. It kind of reminds me of the m.o. of Susan Howe or Cecil Giscombe in that it's clear that the poems are "based in" or incited by research, but there's not too much of the actual research in the poems. They are more like an emotional or psychic distillate of the events. Which is why they have such force. You can get all of the narrative or sources that you need (or want -- or not) in the 5-page afterword.

The book is really an elegy for the poet's grandfather, a Japanese immigrant photographer, born in Hiroshima, interned during WWII. Japanese ritual and mythology provide much of the imagery and feeling-tone of the book -- for instance, the Corpse Eater, a former priest doomed to cannibalize the deceased (in Japan, this is folklore; in early modern Europe, it was real life). Shimoda is well aware of the Freudian link between cannibalism (symbolic) and melancholia: ". . . I have found myself, repeatedly and throughout O Bon, feasting off of what is resurrected, eating my grandfather's corpse, turning it over in my mouth, as the rest of my body burns out of the sound" (89). Like Genet in Funeral Rites, Shimoda in O Bon accepts, embraces, and explores the implications.

Now, in keeping with my practice of randomly selecting excerpts from books I am describing . . . from "In the Middle of Migration":

we find ourselves
turning --



recalcitrant in the ancient domain



masks simultaneously black
we know not
the sensible thing



sugar mammal, slit throat
thethered to the thickest spar
between home and adopted home



makes no difference in times like these
without bothering to unfold the map
or take it from its sleeve



climb the rungs of bone and limb
to pierce what version of skin or sky
the solvent leaks

(35)

I will admit to deliberately choosing left-justified lines for this passage -- which in fact characterize few of the poems -- in order to conform to the almighty Google formatting. But as the multiple spaces between stanzas suggest, these poems are composed of words and the spaces between the words. You should look at the book to get a sense of what Shimoda does with the space of the page. I can't replicate the indentations that "set off" this stanza (in more ways than one): "a visage / nettling the slack / foundation -- may I beg shelter for the night / misshapen where / shall I alight / the valley hymns in the crust" (23).

Want more? See Jerome Rothenberg's blog, where same can be found. Shimoda is interested in contemporary Japanese poetry (vide the poet's ANCIENTS project), from which he has undoubtedly drawn formal inspiration.

Tea and Gin, anyone?

Tea and Gin is a homophonic rendering of the name of the city of Tianjin, China. It is the title of Univ. of Kansas English PhD student Ben Cartwright's dissertation, and his Kickstarter project. He wishes to travel to China to conduct research for Tea and Gin, which is based on the history of foreign "concessions" in the city. Many of the poems are (being) written using procedural constraints of one type or another. It's quite a fascinating project - one that takes English-language "documentary poetry" in new directions (geographically, as well as formally).

Here is his site, w/a short introductory video, along with "testimonials" from William J. Harris and myself (under "Updates"). Even if you decide not to contribute, it's a very interesting project (and video), and a creative, forward-looking method of funding.

If you have an Amazon account, it's easy to make a pledge. And, as with all Kickstarter projects, if he doesn't make his goal by the deadline, you pay nothing.

Thank you for your consideration.

F*in' "A"

This is my first time reading all of Louis Zukofsky's "A"; I'd read parts before (e.g., # 7 - the sawhorses), but never the whole. When I began, I was like, Oh - it's a leftist Cantos (which I guess is how some people think of it). Not a bad thing in itself. But as one gets farther into it, the more it becomes apparent that "A" is a much more formally (and thematically?) various text than the Cantos. One gets the sense of the poet (and person) changing over time, in response to changing circumstances (McCarthyism not least among them). And trying out different things. I find that a much more congenial approach than Uncle Ez, who thinks he has things figured out at the outset, and works deductively from there.

Preliminary conclusion after having read through movement 10: This is all about the potential harmonization of (seeming) opposites: Marx and Spinoza; general and particular; matter and spirit - - "tonus Contrarius" - the poem as fugue. I've started plowing through 12, and it's clear how things changed by the late 40s (as they did for so many writers).

The great thing about blogs is that you can write fresh impressions that probably recapitulate what somebody has already said, and it still has the charming naivite of the neophyte. And, since nobody makes any money from poetry, nobody really cares. Except maybe Paul Zukofsky. But that's another story.

Trawkey/Hawkl

 I sometimes write authors to tell them I like what they wrote. Then it occurred to me that it might be nice to share those complimentary remarks with the rest of the world (after all, I've already bought the book, and who knows maybe you will, too). Is that gauche? OK.

So, to inaugurate this questionable practice, here is what I wrote Christian Hawkey about his book Ventrakl (Ugly Duckling 2010):

"I love the rhythm it establishes between the dialogic, ekphrastic, and lyric. Translation, yes, but also a certain amount of mediumship or necromancy - anyway, it gives the sense of bringing Trakl present (and maybe projecting Hawkey back). I love the way the materiality (and playfulness) of the poems intersperses the documentary passages"

I should give some back story. The premise of the book (on UDP's amazingly wonderful Dossier series, ed. by Anna Moschovakis) is that Hawkey is having a conversation with the German expressionist poet Georg Trakl. This project presents some difficulties, as (a.) Trakl is dead, and (b.) there's about 100 years between the two poets. The ventricle is the back-and-forth between these - via homophonic translations and staged dialogues between the two (both of these quite funny - sometimes the deeply sincere German of Trakl becomes brand names or pop culture references in 21st c. American English), was well as some relatively straightforward biographical speculating (which is rather more somber).  Also lots of photos accompanied by writing that sometimes takes a parallax relation towards them. And lists. And a mix of verse and prose. In short, the sort of book a Joe Harrington would be a sucker for. You might, too.

I'm Finally on the Map

The "Map of Kansas Literature," that is - initiated by the dean of Kansasentrism studies, novelist Tom Averill. Apparently, you get a page if a student in his Kansas Literature class decides to make you one - which seems like an eminently sensible procedure. Check it out - you might be surprised at some of the names!

I should say that Tom, Sarah Smarsh, Eric McHenry, Dennis Etzel, Jr., and the other fine folks on the faculty at Washburn University take this sort of thing very seriously. I have not had a better campus visit than the one to WU, which is only 30 minutes from where I live - all of the folks named here were using my book in their class, the students were engaged and asked great questions, there were 60+ people at the reading (w/good - tough - questions afterward), and I signed at least as many books as I have anywhere else. And what a beautiful campus - which I'd never taken the time to wander around. The new dorm is second to none - complete w/a library (w/fireplace).

[Of course, the Univ. of Kansas isn't too shabby, either, IMO . . .]

I think this officially makes me a naturalized Kansan. (Now if we can just do something about Gov. Sam Brownshirt)

We Love Events!!

Know of a reading or other public event involving quasi-experimental-post-avant-whatever writing w/in a 200-mile radius of Lawrence, KS? If so, let me know - as you can see, I try to maintain a calendar.

Wanna Hold Your Hand?

You may need a little hand-holding when approaching Things Come On (an amneoir). That's OK - in fact, it's why Wesleyan University Press has developed this "Reader's Companion" to the book. It should help you get your bearings - and maybe keep rhizoming out afterwards.