Comments on: Eileen and Me (1982) http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/ Thu, 12 Jan 2012 08:40:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mary Meriam http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/#comment-11652 Mary Meriam Thu, 21 May 2009 13:22:27 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=2994#comment-11652 Actually, in 1981, I worked at The Duchess, and my girlfriend lived on Ave. C. As for cooking - I feel it plays a huge role in my writing, except for me it's cooking food in the kitchen, the eating of which then fuels the writing. Off to the farmer's market this morning, where I'll see the farmer who wrote the poem who grows the food which feeds my poems. Actually, in 1981, I worked at The Duchess, and my girlfriend lived on Ave. C.

As for cooking – I feel it plays a huge role in my writing, except for me it’s cooking food in the kitchen, the eating of which then fuels the writing. Off to the farmer’s market this morning, where I’ll see the farmer who wrote the poem who grows the food which feeds my poems.
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]]> By: Annie Finch http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/#comment-11650 Annie Finch Thu, 21 May 2009 08:38:50 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=2994#comment-11650 "run through the body" is the perfect way to put it, Eileen. It seems to take physical time, too--like cooking--sometimes lots of time, like decades--for the poem to finish whatever it has to do in the body. Nothing mental about it=-it just has its own time. Martin, Mary, didn't I see you at the Pyramid Club--or was it the Red Bar--- “run through the body” is the perfect way to put it, Eileen. It seems to take physical time, too–like cooking–sometimes lots of time, like decades–for the poem to finish whatever it has to do in the body. Nothing mental about it=-it just has its own time.

Martin, Mary, didn’t I see you at the Pyramid Club–or was it the Red Bar—
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]]> By: Mary Meriam http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/#comment-11640 Mary Meriam Thu, 21 May 2009 05:41:56 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=2994#comment-11640 <i>It’s 1981 .... I’m living in the East Village, on a deserted-looking block of Avenue A a couple blocks north of Tompkins Square Park...</i> This is a perfect description of the East Village in 1981. I was there, too. Love that photo - it reminded me of the Dreadnought Hoax photo. It’s 1981 …. I’m living in the East Village, on a deserted-looking block of Avenue A a couple blocks north of Tompkins Square Park…

This is a perfect description of the East Village in 1981. I was there, too. Love that photo – it reminded me of the Dreadnought Hoax photo.
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]]> By: mearl http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/#comment-11504 mearl Tue, 19 May 2009 12:29:55 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=2994#comment-11504 Thanks both of you, Annie & and Eileen, for these fantastic accountings. Sometimes it seems like we led a kind of generic life, trying to figure out how to be poets. I was in New York at exactly the same time, living more less the same life, at the same age. You both capture that feeling of how special it was, but how frightening too. One of my best friends, Richard Zenith, was there also, although we only met in Portugal a few years later, but it was though we had already known each other, having shared so much of the same experience. It does take a long time Eileen. 30 years seems just about right to learn “how not to match the words to music note for note, gesture to gesture.” This make’s me think of Mozart (though it didn’t take him as long) and how he always seems to be either one step behind himself, or one step ahead, as though he were watching the music from the outside. It creates a sense of dissonance within the exquisite structures and melodic forms, as though he were not taking his genius for granted. The cooking and the suturing, time and form… Martin Thanks both of you, Annie & and Eileen, for these fantastic accountings. Sometimes it seems like we led a kind of generic life, trying to figure out how to be poets. I was in New York at exactly the same time, living more less the same life, at the same age. You both capture that feeling of how special it was, but how frightening too. One of my best friends, Richard Zenith, was there also, although we only met in Portugal a few years later, but it was though we had already known each other, having shared so much of the same experience.

It does take a long time Eileen. 30 years seems just about right to learn “how not to match the words to music note for note, gesture to gesture.” This make’s me think of Mozart (though it didn’t take him as long) and how he always seems to be either one step behind himself, or one step ahead, as though he were watching the music from the outside. It creates a sense of dissonance within the exquisite structures and melodic forms, as though he were not taking his genius for granted.

The cooking and the suturing, time and form…

Martin
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]]> By: Eileen Myles http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/#comment-11468 Eileen Myles Mon, 18 May 2009 21:02:23 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=2994#comment-11468 "The intense processes I apply are those of meditation and repetition (of words or sounds). The other ingredients are other words. The end result is very different than the language I started out with. For example, in “Butterfly Lullaby,” the butterfly names are changed by being set to a tune—a tune that just came to me and that I could probably have drummed and chanted outside that high school playground." This is totally helpful. I've sometimes wondered about writers whose work I like though it's a lot more formalist than mine and assumed it was somehow run through the body. Meditation would be that or rep. of course. Because I find a lot of formalist work seems like an act of will and winds up feeling massively cerebral like the deed has been done and there's no room to breathe. I do remember Hart Crane being there now. It's taken me almost 30 years to have any idea how to work w language and music and much seems to be about being able to pause, to be silent and not match the words to music note for note, or gesture to gesture. It's funny I really did remember you actually knowing how to play something and carrying it there. “The intense processes I apply are those of meditation and repetition (of words or sounds). The other ingredients are other words. The end result is very different than the language I started out with. For example, in “Butterfly Lullaby,” the butterfly names are changed by being set to a tune—a tune that just came to me and that I could probably have drummed and chanted outside that high school playground.”

This is totally helpful. I’ve sometimes wondered about writers whose work I like though it’s a lot more formalist than mine and assumed it was somehow run through the body. Meditation would be that or rep. of course. Because I find a lot of formalist work seems like an act of will and winds up feeling massively cerebral like the deed has been done and there’s no room to breathe. I do remember Hart Crane being there now. It’s taken me almost 30 years to have any idea how to work w language and music and much seems to be about being able to pause, to be silent and not match the words to music note for note, or gesture to gesture. It’s funny I really did remember you actually knowing how to play something and carrying it there.
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]]> By: michael j http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/05/eileen-and-me-1982/#comment-11447 michael j Mon, 18 May 2009 15:50:47 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=2994#comment-11447 I like this. A lot. I like this.

A lot.
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