In the American Tree: Language, Realism, Thought

by Silliman, Ron

• ISBN13: 9780943373515
• ISBN10: 0943373514
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-02-01
• Publisher: Small Pr Distribution

Summary

This anthology offers the most substantial collection of work by the Language Poets now available, along with 130 pages of theoretic statements by the poets represented. As such, it does for a new generation of American poets what Don Allen's New American Poetry did for an earlier generation. Poets represented include Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, Clark Coolidge, Michael Davidson, Ray DiPalma, Robert Grenier, Lynn Hejinian, Fanny Howe, Susan Howe, Bernadette Mayer, Michael Palmer, Bob Perelman, Barrett Watten, and Hannah Weiner. "This historic anthology brings into long needed focus the only serious and concerted movement in American literature of the past two decades. It will be indispensable". -- Peter Schjeldahl

Table of Contents

In the American Tree	xv
Introduction: Language, Realism, Poetry	xvii
WEST
Robert Grenier
``a long walk''	5	(1)
Wintry	5	(1)
``snow/blue/eyes''	6	(1)
Warm	6	(1)
Crossing Ontario	7	(2)
Sticky Fingers	9	(11)
Striped Canvas	20	(1)
A Sequence / 28 Separate Poems from Sentences	21	(6)
Barrett Watten
Plasma	27	(7)
Position	34	(5)
Real Estate	39	(2)
Complete Thought	41	(9)
Lyn Hejinian
``The inanimate are rocks, desks, bubble,''	50	(1)
from My Life	51	(3)
from Writing is an Aid to Memory	54	(3)
The Green	57	(4)
``The erosion of rocks blooms. The world''	61	(1)
``pandemonium hews''	62	(1)
``Rain on the macadam quaver ticks.''	63	(1)
``The tidal throughway from a distance''	64	(1)
Bob Perelman
An Autobiography	65	(3)
My One Voice	68	(1)
God	69	(1)
History	70	(2)
Pastoral	72	(1)
Oceanography	73	(10)
Jean Day
Heavy Clouds Passing Before the Sun	83	(1)
Gas	84	(1)
Paradise and Lunch	85	(1)
from Trencher Letters	86	(4)
David Melnick
from Pcoet	90	(4)
from Men in Aida: Book One	94	(4)
Michael Palmer
Echo	98	(12)
Larry Price
Local Motions	110	(7)
Kit Robinson
On the Corner	117	(3)
Tribute to Nervous	120	(2)
Severance	122	(2)
The Separateness of the Fingers in Trance	124	(3)
Verdigris	127	(4)
Trial de Novo	131	(4)
Ron Silliman
from Tjanting	135	(10)
Rae Armantrout
Anti-Short Story	145	(1)
Tone	146	(2)
You Float	148	(2)
Xenophobia	150	(3)
Single Most	153	(2)
View	155	(1)
Carla Harryman
Property	156	(10)
Alan Bernheimer
Inside Cheese	166	(1)
Amarillo	167	(7)
Spinal Guard	174	(1)
Wave Train	175	(3)
Steve Benson
Echo	178	(3)
Narcissus	181	(5)
from The Busses	186	(2)
Blue Book 42	188	(8)
Michael Davidson
Brahms	196	(1)
If to Witness	197	(1)
Summer Letters	198	(2)
The Article on Geneva	200	(2)
Scales	202	(2)
Tom Mandel
All These Examples	204	(2)
Sally	206	(4)
Realism	210	(2)
David Bromige
My Poetry	212	(11)
Stephen Rodefer
Pretext	223	(1)
Words in Works in Russian	224	(9)
Codex	233	(4)
EAST
Clark Coolidge
from The Maintains	237	(7)
from Polaroid	244	(4)
from Quartz Hearts	248	(8)
from Weathers	256	(6)
Charles Bernstein
Part Quake	262	(7)
For Love Has Such a Spirit That if It is Portrayed It Dies	269	(4)
To Which I Never Wanted	273	(2)
The Blue Divide	275	(2)
Sc. McC.	277	(3)
The Klupzy Girl	280	(5)
Hannah Weiner
from Clairvoyant Journal	285	(3)
from Little Books l Indians	288	(12)
Bruce Andrews
from Sonnets (Memento Mori)	300	(3)
Funnels In	303	(9)
Letters	312	(2)
from R + B	314	(3)
from I Guess Work the Time Up	317	(7)
from Confidence Trick	324	(1)
Diane Ward
Pronouncing	325	(6)
P. Inman
from Ocker	331	(5)
Peter Seaton
from The Son Master	336	(11)
Susan Howe
from Pythagorean Silence	347	(11)
Lynne Dreyer
from Tamoka	358	(5)
from Step Work	363	(5)
Michael Gottlieb
from Fourteen Poems	368	(2)
from Ninety-Six Tears	370	(12)
Tina Darragh
Raymond Chandler's Sentence	382	(6)
Tom Beckett
The Picture Window	388	(3)
Fanny Howe
Alsace-Lorraine	391	(4)
John Mason
``Red Fred exhumed the orangepeels.''	395	(1)
``Cars, wagons, buses, lunch, all late,''	396	(1)
``waiters were singing''	397	(1)
``lunge or lurch, which one?''	398	(1)
``human beings? i call them human borings''	399	(1)
Bernadette Mayer
from Studying Hunger	400	(13)
Alan Davies
``101''	413	(9)
Shared Sentences	422	(4)
Erica Hunt
Dear Dear	426	(1)
Dear	427	(1)
Dear	428	(1)
James Sherry
from In Case	429	(6)
She'll Be Comin' 'Round	435	(1)
Ray Di Palma
Exile	436	(2)
Geo	438	(3)
from Planh	441	(11)
January Zero	452	(3)
Ted Greenwald
from Word of Mouth	455	(12)
SECOND FRONT
Carla Harryman
Foreword	467	(1)
Ron Silliman, Barrett Watten, Steve Benson, Lyn Hejinian, Charles Bernstein, & Bob Perelman
For Change	468	(5)
Jackson Mac Low
``Language-Centered''	473	(4)
Robert Grenier
On Speech	477	(2)
Ted Greenwald
Spoken	479	(2)
Clark Coolidge
from A Letter to Paul Metcalf (jan 7, 1972)	481	(2)
Lyn Hejinian
Variations: A Return to Words	483	(6)
Steve Benson
On Realism	489	(1)
Lynne Dreyer
I Started Writing	490	(2)
Stephen Rodefer
Preface to Four Lectures	492	(3)
David Bromige
By Visible Truth We Mean the Apprehension of the Absolute Condition of Present Things	495	(1)
Bruce Andrews
Misrepresentation	496	(8)
Robert Grenier
Notes on Coolidge, Objectives, Zukofsky, Romanticism, And &	504	(14)
Rae Armantrout
Why Don't Women Do Language-Oriented Writing?	518	(3)
Tina Darragh
Howe	521	(3)
Kit Robinson
7 Days in Another Town	524	(2)
Clark Coolidge
from Arrangement	526	(2)
Susan Howe
P. Inman, Platin	528	(3)
Bernadette Mayer & The Members of the St. Mark's Church Poetry Project Writing Workshop, 1971-5
Experiments	531	(4)
Ron Silliman
from The New Sentence	535	(14)
Nick Piombino
Writing and Conceiving	549	(6)
Charles Bernstein
Writing and Method	555	(13)
Barrett Watten
Method and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E: After Surrealism	568	(13)
Afterword to the New Edition	581	(8)
Contributors' Notes	589	(20)
Acknowledgements	609