Comments on: It’s Always a Bad Time For Poetry

By: john

john — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Bill,
Echoes of Rexroth!
“You killed him! You killed him.
In your God damned Brooks Brothers suit,
You son of a bitch.”
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=171537
Imagine those words bellowed by someone with a voice like W. C. Fields except really pissed off. Someone had left behind an LP of Rexroth reading that poem accompanied by dissonant improvised jazz (with Ferlinghetti reading on the other side) in a house I once lived in. The closing of the poem is one of the great moments in the history of recording.

By: Boyd Nielson

Boyd Nielson — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:35:24 +0000

Bill, you and I don’t exactly agree, but what I really like about your comment is that it pushes Kenny’s point above to its logical conclusion (which is no easy task). Maybe Kenny should amend the title to read something like this:
“It’s Always a Bad Time For Poetry, or All Societies Exist To Murder Poets.”

By: Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:16:33 +0000

All poets exist for one purpose: to persuade other poets to give up.

By: Bill Knott

Bill Knott — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:58:53 +0000

*
When poets start to break under the torrent of hatred society pours upon them; when they begin to internalize that hatred and to self-generate it in the neurotic hope of propitiating its cruelties, when they snatch the whip from Master and lash themselves;
when they understand how loathed and despised poetry is by all the powers of this world; when they realize how loathed and despised they are by all the authorities of this world; and when, under the endless onslaught of contempt and scorn and persecution which they as poets are condemned to suffer, at last they too loathe and despise themselves,
that is the point they turn internecene.
*
All societies exist for one purpose: to murder poets.
Everything in the world exists in order to end up on the point of a knife entering the poet’s throat.
**

By: Jordan

Jordan — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 13:58:36 +0000

Solitary, to paraphrase Judd Nelson, but social.

By: michael robbins

michael robbins — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 04:23:56 +0000

In case anyone wasn’t sure, that nutty interlude was brought to you by Franz Wright, who’s known to be a bit testy (see his recent, um, interventions at Digital Emunction). And now back to Harriet’s regularly scheduled backbiting …

By: FW

FW — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:47:18 +0000

Poetry is not literature. When will you all learn how simple it is to distinguish between real poetry–the voice of the person within you who is more intelligent, powerful and happier than any real person–and “liturature” and all your sad little discussions about it. FPW

By: FW

FW — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 07:43:12 +0000

You can all talk until you turn blue–you are just avoiding the aloneness in which real poetry is created, and in which is discovered again and again the fact that poetry is the opposite of literature and all your theories–Jesus, why don’t you just set your mind on English Dept, tenure, At least you would get paid for this horseshit. FW

By: Boyd Nielson

Boyd Nielson — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 14:42:52 +0000

I am joining this discussion really late, having been sidetracked in travels. But I can’t help but note that this comment by Kenneth Goldsmith is not only awesome but also awesomely jaw-dropping:
>Kent sed: “If you go to the poor neighborhoods of El Alto, above La Paz, you will find truly avant-garde and radical young poets.”
>Wow. That sounds amazing. Can you please give us more information about these poets? What are some of the better-known poets’ names? And I’d love you to post a poem or two of theirs and links. Thanks!
Just wow and amazing backatcha. What some poets (especially in the United States) seem to love about lines like “It’s always a bad time for poetry” is not just that the line is true (it is true, but trivially so). What they love about lines like that is also that they provide poets a feeling of simultaneous solidarity and liberation, solidarity in suffering (after all, poets will never make it either) and liberation from market realities (after all, poets can be a source of subversion and resistance because they will never make it): Exculpation and opposition, in one easy pill.
Or maybe I’m totally wrong here—and unfair to boot. Maybe Kenny just wanted to know the links so that he could invite the poets of La Paz to the next Conceptual Poetics conference. Some crappy times, no one needs to be reminded, are crappier than others.

By: john

john — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 13:31:23 +0000

Hate is an emotion. Not a strategy.
But, whatever makes you happy!