http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/night-rhythm/ A blog from the Poetry Foundation where contemporary poets debate classic and contemporary poetry from America and around the world. Thu, 18 Mar 2010 21:26:09 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/night-rhythm/#comment-2939 Don Share Fri, 29 Feb 2008 14:37:01 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=728#comment-2939 Robin, I'm so glad you mentioned "Falling" - what a wild poem! I never get on a plane without thinking of it. Alicia, you have to know that if you mention Paiphae, I'm going to bring up <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poet.html?id=932" rel="nofollow">Basil Bunting</a>: So is summer held to its contract and the year solvent; but men driven by storm fret, reminded of sweltering Crete and Pasiphae's pungent sweat, who heard the god-bull's feet scattering sand, breathed byre stink, yet stood with expectant hand to guide his seed to its soil; nor did flesh flinch distended by the brute nor loaded spirit sink till it had gloried in unlike creation. Back to Dickey, I've heard lots of stories about him... but when I was a fledgling editor, he was wonderful to work with, and he told me some swell stories. Robin, I’m so glad you mentioned “Falling” – what a wild poem! I never get on a plane without thinking of it.
Alicia, you have to know that if you mention Paiphae, I’m going to bring up Basil Bunting:
So is summer held to its contract
and the year solvent; but men
driven by storm fret,
reminded of sweltering Crete
and Pasiphae’s pungent sweat,
who heard the god-bull’s feet
scattering sand,
breathed byre stink, yet stood
with expectant hand
to guide his seed to its soil;
nor did flesh flinch
distended by the brute
nor loaded spirit sink
till it had gloried in unlike creation.
Back to Dickey, I’ve heard lots of stories about him… but when I was a fledgling editor, he was wonderful to work with, and he told me some swell stories.

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/night-rhythm/#comment-2938 Alicia (AE) Fri, 29 Feb 2008 06:32:25 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=728#comment-2938 Thanks for these comments. Robin, the only other successful lyric poem to deal with bestiality of all things is Delisa Mulkey's beautiful and sensual Pasiphae poem. Do you know it? Thanks for these comments.
Robin, the only other successful lyric poem to deal with bestiality of all things is Delisa Mulkey’s beautiful and sensual Pasiphae poem. Do you know it?

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/night-rhythm/#comment-2937 Robin Kemp Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:09:44 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=728#comment-2937 Oh, wow! "The Sheep-Child!" "I ate my one meal of milk and died staring!" I think this was the first Dickey poem I ever read, followed closely by "Falling," and both made a huge impression on me. I thought, wow, if I could write a poem that wild, that'd really be something. I'm not sure that I could write anything like either of those poems, but I'm happy enough that he did it. Oh, wow! “The Sheep-Child!” “I ate my one meal of milk and died staring!” I think this was the first Dickey poem I ever read, followed closely by “Falling,” and both made a huge impression on me. I thought, wow, if I could write a poem that wild, that’d really be something. I’m not sure that I could write anything like either of those poems, but I’m happy enough that he did it.

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/night-rhythm/#comment-2936 Don Share Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:47:44 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=728#comment-2936 Did you guys know that there's a <a href="http://www.jamesdickey.org/" rel="nofollow">James Dickey Newsletter and Society</a>? More must-see Dickeyana can be found <a href="http://eric.stamey.com/dickey.html" rel="nofollow">here</a>. Did you guys know that there’s a James Dickey Newsletter and Society?
More must-see Dickeyana can be found here.

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/02/night-rhythm/#comment-2935 marilyn nelson Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:40:09 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=728#comment-2935 How nice to read a reappraisal of Dickey's experiments and accomplishments. Thanks! "The Sheep Child" was the first Dickey poem I read, in the pages of The New Yorker, sitting in an easy chair on a Saturday afternoon in an apartment in Chicago in the summer of 1967. It blew off the top of my head. Marilyn Nelson How nice to read a reappraisal of Dickey’s experiments and accomplishments. Thanks!
“The Sheep Child” was the first Dickey poem I read, in the pages of The New Yorker, sitting in an easy chair on a Saturday afternoon in an apartment in Chicago in the summer of 1967. It blew off the top of my head.
Marilyn Nelson

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