http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/09/into-the-mouths-of-volcanoes/ A blog from the Poetry Foundation where contemporary poets debate classic and contemporary poetry from America and around the world. Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:15:10 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/09/into-the-mouths-of-volcanoes/#comment-5536 Boyd Nielson Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:03:07 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1082#comment-5536 Dear Forrest, Thanks for this. And while we’re on the topic of the Atacama desert and the legacies of Pinochet, perhaps also we should be reminded of the miners strike at the Escondida Mine in 2006, which mine of course is located not (that) far from Raúl Zurita’s poem. Obviously, Chile is a different place today, and we all should be comforted that an aging Pinochet was finally arrested and held in London. But where is the court that will do the same to bhp Billiton and other multinationals that have relentlessly exploited workers and resources (not to mention the governments who let—enable—them to do it)? Of course, there is none, and that is why workers went on strike in the first place. <i>ni pena ni miedo</i> I will say this in an aside though: In view of the tempestuousness of the other, “pirated anthology” thread, Kent has a point about the teapot inclinations and obsessions of American poets. Whatever else the local people are doing who, as you observe, “still carry shovels into the desert on Sundays and […] turn over the sand of the letters to keep [the poem] fresh,” I doubt they are expressing much affection for Zurita’s “rep.” And surely the threats of and/or calls for lawsuits against the authors of the pirated anthology (which even Silliman happily notes, and seems to celebrate, on his blog) say much more about American fantasies of judicial justice than they do about the potential for such so-called vandalism either to produce or confront anything that resembles an actual crime. Dear Forrest,
Thanks for this. And while we’re on the topic of the Atacama desert and the legacies of Pinochet, perhaps also we should be reminded of the miners strike at the Escondida Mine in 2006, which mine of course is located not (that) far from Raúl Zurita’s poem. Obviously, Chile is a different place today, and we all should be comforted that an aging Pinochet was finally arrested and held in London. But where is the court that will do the same to bhp Billiton and other multinationals that have relentlessly exploited workers and resources (not to mention the governments who let—enable—them to do it)?
Of course, there is none, and that is why workers went on strike in the first place. ni pena ni miedo I will say this in an aside though: In view of the tempestuousness of the other, “pirated anthology” thread, Kent has a point about the teapot inclinations and obsessions of American poets. Whatever else the local people are doing who, as you observe, “still carry shovels into the desert on Sundays and […] turn over the sand of the letters to keep [the poem] fresh,” I doubt they are expressing much affection for Zurita’s “rep.” And surely the threats of and/or calls for lawsuits against the authors of the pirated anthology (which even Silliman happily notes, and seems to celebrate, on his blog) say much more about American fantasies of judicial justice than they do about the potential for such so-called vandalism either to produce or confront anything that resembles an actual crime.

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/09/into-the-mouths-of-volcanoes/#comment-5535 Forrest Gander Sun, 05 Oct 2008 14:53:03 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1082#comment-5535 Also forthcoming, and from an excellent poet and translator, is Daniel Borzutzky's translation of Zurita's Canto a Su Amor Desaparecido (mentioned in my note)-- now looking for a publisher! Also forthcoming, and from an excellent poet and translator, is Daniel Borzutzky’s translation of Zurita’s Canto a Su Amor Desaparecido (mentioned in my note)– now looking for a publisher!

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/09/into-the-mouths-of-volcanoes/#comment-5534 Kent Johnson Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:02:14 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1082#comment-5534 Yes, and big-nosed, too! A lovely man... Kent Yes, and big-nosed, too!
A lovely man…
Kent

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/09/into-the-mouths-of-volcanoes/#comment-5533 Forrest Gander Tue, 30 Sep 2008 18:33:26 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1082#comment-5533 Typically, Zurita has only kind things to say about Roberto Bolano,despite. Big-hearted poet. Typically, Zurita has only kind things to say about Roberto Bolano,despite. Big-hearted poet.

]]> http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2008/09/into-the-mouths-of-volcanoes/#comment-5532 Kent Johnson Tue, 30 Sep 2008 16:26:32 +0000 http://pf/harriet/?p=1082#comment-5532 Zurita is one of the living greats. I have a piece about him coming out soon. The photo Forrest provides is also part of my essay (thanks for preempting me, Forrest). It is the largest poem in the world, rivaling the scale of the Nazca plain drawings... Um, "Conceptual Poets" of the English-speaking sphere, you have some catching up to do... Zurita happens to be the model (a perverse one, to be sure) of the main character of Bolano's Distant Star, the fascist poet-pilot, Alberto Ruiz-Tagle: Zurita famously sky-wrote a poem over NYC in the early 80s, covering some 15 kilometers. Bolano, a Trotskyist, hated Zurita (a member of the Communist Party at the time) for assuming a ministerial post in the bourgeois government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, after the fall of Pinochet. Well, in Latin America, poetry scandals can be more than tempests in teapots! Long live poetry written across the mountains and the sky. Kent Zurita is one of the living greats.
I have a piece about him coming out soon. The photo Forrest provides is also part of my essay (thanks for preempting me, Forrest). It is the largest poem in the world, rivaling the scale of the Nazca plain drawings… Um, “Conceptual Poets” of the English-speaking sphere, you have some catching up to do…
Zurita happens to be the model (a perverse one, to be sure) of the main character of Bolano’s Distant Star, the fascist poet-pilot, Alberto Ruiz-Tagle: Zurita famously sky-wrote a poem over NYC in the early 80s, covering some 15 kilometers. Bolano, a Trotskyist, hated Zurita (a member of the Communist Party at the time) for assuming a ministerial post in the bourgeois government of Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, after the fall of Pinochet. Well, in Latin America, poetry scandals can be more than tempests in teapots!
Long live poetry written across the mountains and the sky.
Kent

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