and the other thing, and the other

poetry workshop

Also, about yesterday. It's probably clear that my heart is with the process-poets, those who are more interested in generating poetic material than in writing perfect gems. But of course I also appreciate those poets who refine their work. And I'm beginning to understand what Ashbery means when he says that he now edits his work as he writes it; the longer you write, the more you can anticipate where you're going, and know why you want to get there.

For those of you most drawn to the refiners of craft, I don't ask that you become process-poets, but that you entertain the notion that manipulating language in advance of meaning (as Mohammad does) offers possibilities for fresh uses of language, fresh ideas about the world.

I am very skeptical of the notion that any language comes from within, as we are so utterly saturated by the language that comes to us from media, from books, from friends, from advertising. So the key is to find a way to use the pre-existing language honestly (honestly does not always mean easily, or clearly, either). How we do this is up to us, but there are many possible ways to do it.

Enough pontificating. I gather the new German pope will be doing plenty of that.

aloha, Susan