March 24 SOME THOUGHTS ON CATHERINE WAGNER'S PAMPHLET "IMITATING"I want to know how the poems were composed. How long they took. I’m curious, is all. They dance (yes, dance) the deliciously tricky line that divides (or attempts to divide) the ordinary diary jotting and the apparently quick, of-the-moment necessary poem. (“That’s the rule: I have to write down whatever’s happened”) It’s mainly personal, did this, think that stuff, but if there’s a wall nearby it’s always well and truly off it. I think there’s an aching shoulder in there somewhere.
And if “I have to write down whatever’s happened” how to explain such lines as
which I just love but don’t altogether “get”. Some of it is easier than that:
and some is just straightforward what happened. The most startling thing about the poems, once you’re over their pretty fragmentary but nevertheless ultimately cohesive nature, is the vitality of the language. Defiant, inventive, sparkling, spoken, written, funny, witty, nervous, brash….. |