Comments on: Yoga for Losers II http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/ A blog from the Poetry Foundation where contemporary poets debate classic and contemporary poetry from America and around the world. Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:34:36 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Michael Gottlieb http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25769 Michael Gottlieb Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:25:43 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25769 God, Eileen - yes, it was so blurry. And as I've been writing about those days I think I've been including the sex. At least some of it. God, Eileen – yes, it was so blurry. And as I’ve been writing about those days I think I’ve been including the sex. At least some of it.

]]> By: Keeks http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25767 Keeks Tue, 13 Oct 2009 21:28:55 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25767 "Like when you were being eaten." Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Tears in my eyes. I love you, Eileen Myles. “Like when you were being eaten.”

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!! Tears in my eyes. I love you, Eileen Myles.

]]> By: EKSwitaj http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25748 EKSwitaj Mon, 12 Oct 2009 20:23:43 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25748 Death is not the only danger. To be forced, by another, to change is a special kind of Hell. Death is not the only danger. To be forced, by another, to change is a special kind of Hell.

]]> By: Terreson http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25741 Terreson Mon, 12 Oct 2009 17:45:18 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25741 Thanks, Matt, for the correction. It was bugging me in the back of my head somewhere. What he actually said is better. Terreson Thanks, Matt, for the correction. It was bugging me in the back of my head somewhere. What he actually said is better.

Terreson

]]> By: Rachel http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25733 Rachel Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:54:25 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25733 Here's a Shelley quote I like but don't begin to live up to: "A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own." Here’s a Shelley quote I like but don’t begin to live up to: “A man, to be greatly good, must imagine intensely and comprehensively; he must put himself in the place of another and of many others; the pains and pleasures of his species must become his own.”

]]> By: Edwin Torres http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25732 Edwin Torres Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:35:12 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25732 Ditto CA, bravery is in short supply these days! I'm sure, Eileen, you are aware of yourself. Maybe the dumbing down mentioned earlier is a reflection of the receiver...but my stereo hasn't worked in ages! Ditto CA, bravery is in short supply these days! I’m sure, Eileen, you are aware of yourself. Maybe the dumbing down mentioned earlier is a reflection of the receiver…but my stereo hasn’t worked in ages!

]]> By: Matt http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25731 Matt Sun, 11 Oct 2009 21:05:26 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25731 Shelley said poets were the "unacknowledged legislators of the world," a statement I've always thought was silly. Anyway the word "moral" isn't even there. Shelley said poets were the “unacknowledged legislators of the world,” a statement I’ve always thought was silly. Anyway the word “moral” isn’t even there.

]]> By: CAConrad http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25730 CAConrad Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:47:21 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25730 Dear Eileen, one of the things I think that's so important is that YOU are saying this. I mean, because YOU being YOU, being this amazing writer everyone looks up to takes the risks to say the things you say, it's the Open Door, it's a true gift that Open Door. There's so much FEAR about saying, and when YOU say the things many people are afraid of saying it's the way to nothing but more discourse. And of course I'm completely thrilled by you mentioning The Book of Frank. YOU show us and give us the space! I'm grateful for being queer. Queer has been hard. But it's always getting better. But the real reason I'm grateful for it is because in a way THAT is why I'm a poet, because it's what I turned to in order to keep on my toes and not fall on my face the way I knew everyone wanted me to. Being queer got me away from the world where I grew up because in the end I had to leave it, it wasn't going to let me stay if I wanted to and of course all I wanted was to find a loving home. The world couldn't possibly be better if I hadn't found poetry for being queer. Kevin Killian says Hart Crane died so faggots could write poems, and I love Kevin for it, and I guess Crane too, even though I'm not as jacked up on Crane as others. HERE'S TO the bravery you bring back to poetry! How can we possibly thank you enough for it???? Dear Eileen, one of the things I think that’s so important is that YOU are saying this. I mean, because YOU being YOU, being this amazing writer everyone looks up to takes the risks to say the things you say, it’s the Open Door, it’s a true gift that Open Door. There’s so much FEAR about saying, and when YOU say the things many people are afraid of saying it’s the way to nothing but more discourse.

And of course I’m completely thrilled by you mentioning The Book of Frank.

YOU show us and give us the space! I’m grateful for being queer. Queer has been hard. But it’s always getting better. But the real reason I’m grateful for it is because in a way THAT is why I’m a poet, because it’s what I turned to in order to keep on my toes and not fall on my face the way I knew everyone wanted me to. Being queer got me away from the world where I grew up because in the end I had to leave it, it wasn’t going to let me stay if I wanted to and of course all I wanted was to find a loving home. The world couldn’t possibly be better if I hadn’t found poetry for being queer.

Kevin Killian says Hart Crane died so faggots could write poems, and I love Kevin for it, and I guess Crane too, even though I’m not as jacked up on Crane as others.

HERE’S TO the bravery you bring back to poetry! How can we possibly thank you enough for it????

]]> By: Gary B. Fitzgerald http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25705 Gary B. Fitzgerald Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:22:28 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25705 "My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life." - Edith Sitwell "A poet must need be before his own age, to be even with posterity." - James Russell Lowell “My poems are hymns of praise to the glory of life.”

- Edith Sitwell

“A poet must need be before his own age, to be even with posterity.”

- James Russell Lowell

]]> By: Terreson http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/10/yoga-for-losers-ii/#comment-25702 Terreson Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:57:16 +0000 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/harriet/?p=5569#comment-25702 I've been trying to figure out if I want to enter into this argument. Making queen bees this late in the season is calling for sweat euquity. Poetry, however, is the thing. By report ancient Irish Ollaves and ancient Welsh Bards, when they met their peers, would enter into and rapartee through poetry. This is the spirit in which I take on GBF's poetry on a blog. Upthread someone says that a down thumbing should be taken as a crit of a GBF poem. I say where is the intelligent response in such an anonymous signal? And I question again Harriet's policy of thumbing up or down. My gut tells me it has led to the dumbing down of conversation. Also upthread someone has taken GBF to task for being moralistic or for talking down to his poem's subjects. So wasn't it Shelley who said poets were the world's moral legislators? Do I remember this right? And doesn't everyone else find the Eileen Myles blog to be moralistic, judgemental, and exculionary? I do. So why is GBF getting processed this way for a poem he puts out honestly, not posturing in the way so many poets these days do, when the likes of Ms Myles gets sanctioned? Terreson I’ve been trying to figure out if I want to enter into this argument. Making queen bees this late in the season is calling for sweat euquity. Poetry, however, is the thing.

By report ancient Irish Ollaves and ancient Welsh Bards, when they met their peers, would enter into and rapartee through poetry. This is the spirit in which I take on GBF’s poetry on a blog.

Upthread someone says that a down thumbing should be taken as a crit of a GBF poem. I say where is the intelligent response in such an anonymous signal? And I question again Harriet’s policy of thumbing up or down. My gut tells me it has led to the dumbing down of conversation.

Also upthread someone has taken GBF to task for being moralistic or for talking down to his poem’s subjects. So wasn’t it Shelley who said poets were the world’s moral legislators? Do I remember this right? And doesn’t everyone else find the Eileen Myles blog to be moralistic, judgemental, and exculionary? I do. So why is GBF getting processed this way for a poem he puts out honestly, not posturing in the way so many poets these days do, when the likes of Ms Myles gets sanctioned?

Terreson

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