Comments on: Regional Homesickness

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 07:20:28 +0000

Dear Ms Limon, etc…
I “grew-up” on an anthology called A New Geography of Poets, but before you check the index for your favorite regional poets–you will NOT find Howe, Ashbery, or Thomas, but you will find a Stafford poem–consider that any anthology is only as definitive as its necessarily meager collection can be, and this anthology provides little compensation in the way of commentary–only the thirteen-page intro. By letting the poems speak for themselves, the editors, (Field, Locklin, & Stetler) construct a take on regional that exposes its slippery slopes:
“… the ‘geography’ of poets is not only where they happen to be. Along with the news of the world around them, their poems report the state of the world inside: the cities and highways, rivers and mountains, yes, who and what populates the landscape–human, vegetable, and animal–but also the poet’s inner geography, where ancestors, old neighborhoods, and political issues mingle… the native-born mixed with newcomers and transients, influencing each other, creating the mix, sometimes irreconcilable, even combustible, that is at the core of this country: The voices of the places.”
I am “home” in So Cal for a visit, soon to return to a relatively new life in Paris, France… a Paris poet, an American, a Long Beach poet, all possible combinations, and other things depending on who’s talking; Consequently, I find one assumption problematic: the idea that writers claim regional labels for themselves. More often, others impose the labels… relative classifications useful for archiving, analysis, and marketing but maybe not very useful to the art itself. I find myself to be always just outside of everything… pulling at the trap doors to see what spills out.
Maybe this is a regional thing! Thanks for the provocation!
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By: Brian Salchert

Brian Salchert — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:02:41 +0000

An older writer, the core of my 1967 thesis at Iowa was a lyric narrative
of an other me walking through a specific section my Wisconsin hometown.
I have written about other places where I have lived or passed through,
but in that instance I was quite strongly a regional poet.
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By: Ada

Ada — Tue, 27 May 2008 17:03:26 +0000

D.A. Powell,
I am in touch with Earl and I will pass on your regards. It is true that Sonoma begs a certain homesickness inherent to the landscape. I have often told people (I was born in Sonoma on a green couch) that I have never felt like I was “from” Sonoma, but rather “belonged to it” in some way,
All the best,
Ada
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By: D. A. Powell

D. A. Powell — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:11:18 +0000

Sonoma County is one of those places that invites a certain homesickness, with its various landscapes: the vineyards, the geysers, the redwoods, the Russian River, the coast. I remember Earl LeClair’s poems well; he would often read in my series in Santa Rosa. If you are in touch with him, please give him my best.
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By: bill knott

bill knott — Fri, 23 May 2008 16:14:37 +0000

. . . in thinking about another regional poet whose
work i have read and admired deeply,
R.S. Thomas,
it seems clear that his conviction in and alliegiance
to the local was strengthened by Welsh antipathy to the
British cultural forces overwhelming what
he could obviously think of as “his land” (my quotes) . . .
in resistance to the Capitol the boondock bard
can dig in and find a rooted stubborn
raison d’etre . . .
(that’s what Heaney seems to always be harking
desperately back toward, and though I was exasperated reading
his last book by his use of vernacularisms like “snedder”,
i can understand his need to stand by his
home-patois, as phony and put-on as it sometimes seems) . . .
a snedder is something you use to skin turnips
with (if i’m remembering correctly) . . .
and of course Les Murray the Australian poet
also flaunts pride in his provincialist approach . . .
but USA poets, we USAPOs, are any of us willing to
profess as adamant as Thomas/Heaney/Murray are
their adherence to the backyard?
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By: bill knott

bill knott — Fri, 23 May 2008 14:46:12 +0000

. . .
an interesting and thought-provoking entry, Ms. Limón . . .
i don’t have the resources to do it, but i would imagine that
if someone compiled a bibliographical list
of anthologies of regional poetry by USA poets
published in the last 4-5 decades,
that it would include dozens and perhaps even
hundreds of titles . . .
has there been one for every state by now? Many cities also
have had their poets gathered thus . . .
but what do these numerous olios signify— the ongoing cohesion
of a regional lit,
or are they merely memorials, epitaphs for an ideal that was killed
off in 1975 by Ashbery’s Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror?
I still read and love Stafford, but i’m old: five years or so ago
I ran into Marvin Bell and heard him lament that the students
at Iowa refused to read Stafford . . . do any young
poets of relevance read him?
the problem with defining or identifying oneself as a
regional poet is complicated not just because one doesn’t
want to look like a cornball Stafford compared to the
cosmo Ashbery,
it’s compounded by regional heritage/histories of
political forces and racial socioeconomic inequalities . . .
to declare oneself a local poet today is to invite disdain
and dismissal . . . cosmopolitanism has overwhelmed
homegrown.
To me Levine is a great and important poet but
my taste was formed pre-’75 . . . before le deluge
of Ashbery . . . i know my preferences are archaic
and obsolete and defunct . . . Stephen Burt ain’t
going to write encomia to Stafford/Levine et al . . .
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By: Adam Strauss

Adam Strauss — Wed, 21 May 2008 21:59:30 +0000

I don’t think regional poetry/poets are gonna go off the map
though what regionalism looks like may change; Susan
Howe may not be a name that makes one think
regionalism, but she can be viewed as one of the
most regional poets ever!
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