This Art

by Wiegers, Michael

• ISBN13: 9781556591846
• ISBN10: 1556591845
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-01
• Publisher: PERSEUS

Summary

In more than one hundred poems, sixty poets from around the world explore the nature and function of poetry, whether directly or obliquely, finding mystery, paradox, and fullness in an art made of common everyday speech. Editor Michael Wiegers writes in his introduction, "Often the loudest arguments on behalf of poetry are made in prose. Meanwhile, the more convincing arguments are sung in poems." Hayden Carruth reminds the reader of Tolstoy's insistence that poetry infect the reader, "so to induce a change, / a change of conscience / that may lead to a change in the world." Every poem requires new eyes and ears, new angles of perception, a fresh encounter with consciousness and conscience. And despite the fact that almost every poet agrees that poetry writing (and reading) demands a state of revolutionary thinking, the poems are surprisingly free of self-consciousness or self-regard. In a poem by Robert Bringhurst, a poet is warned, "Self-love is an ending... / and not a beginning. Love means love / of the thing sung, not of the song or the singing." Jane Miller reminds us, "We are / being made into words even as we speak." This Art advances no new theory of poetry writing, nor does it attempt to define a school of thought on the subject. Rather it serves up a sumptuously passionate and diverse art of the impossible, where poetry is found, time and again, in "awakening to something / just beyond what words can say." Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xiii
Art Class	3	(1)
James Galvin
``Once I Got A Postcard''	4	(1)
Jaan Kaplinski
Always on the Train	5	(1)
Ruth Stone
On the Subject of Poetry	6	(1)
W.S. Merwin
Geo-Bestiary #X	7	(1)
Jim Harrison
The Allure of Forms	8	(1)
Coral Bracho
365 Poems	9	(1)
Ann Stanford
Poetry	10	(2)
Jane Miller
Voices (an excerpt)	12	(2)
Antonio Porchia
What We Need Words For	14	(1)
Rebecca Seiferle
Georgi Borisov in Paris	15	(1)
John Balaban
Speech Alone	16	(1)
Jean Follain
Ars Poetica	17	(2)
Eleanor Wilner
Thoughts on a Night Journey	19	(1)
Tu Fu
The Purchase	20	(1)
Clarence Major
You Can Start the Poetry Now, Or: News from Crazy Horse	21	(2)
Thomas McGrath
The Useful	23	(1)
Jean Follain
Love Poem	24	(1)
Erin Belieu
These Poems, She Said	25	(1)
Robert Bringhurst
Poetics	26	(2)
Cesare Pavese
Writing Class	28	(2)
Stephen Berg
Why do poets write?	30	(1)
Richard Jones
In Hiding	31	(1)
Miklos Radnoti
A Woman Writer Does Laundry	32	(1)
Anna Swir
``To Write More''	33	(1)
Jaan Kaplinski
Learning a Dead Language	34	(2)
W.S. Merwin
California	36	(2)
Hayden Carruth
By the Rivers	38	(2)
Shirley Kaufman
After Our War	40	(1)
John Balaban
August 22, 1939	41	(4)
Kenneth Rexroth
What Issa Heard	45	(1)
David Budbill
Drinking Alone on a Spring Night	46	(1)
An Jung-sop
Word Drunk	47	(1)
Jim Harrison
Epiphany	48	(1)
Elsa Cross
A Physics of Sudden Light	49	(2)
Alberto Rios
Writing the Poem	51	(1)
Gary Holthaus
Homage to the Word-Hoard	52	(2)
Joseph Stroud
The Book of Questions #XXI	54	(1)
Pablo Neruda
From My Notebook	55	(2)
Antonio Machado
Hacedor	57	(1)
Joseph Stroud
Theory and Practice in Poetry	58	(2)
Eleanor Wilner
Loading a Boar	60	(1)
David Lee
Imperfect Poetry and Meaningless Poetry	61	(1)
Iijima Koichi
To No One In Particular	62	(2)
Marvin Bell
Ars Poetica: A Stone Soup	64	(2)
Norman Dubie
The Impossible Indispensability of the Ars Poetica	66	(2)
Hayden Carruth
Who I Write For	68	(3)
Vicente Aleixandre
Still Another Day #XXVIII	71	(1)
Pablo Neruda
Dedicated to You	72	(2)
Reetika Vazirani
Sounds of the Resurrected Dead Man's Footsteps (#2)	74	(2)
Marvin Bell
Poetic Voice	76	(1)
Rebecca Seiferle
I Can't Write a Poem about Class Rage	77	(2)
Erin Belieu
Comment on this: in the real scheme of things, poetry is marginal	79	(1)
Richard Jones
Ars Poetica	80	(2)
Norman Dubie
Somebody Consoles Me with a Poem	82	(2)
Sandor Csoori
Some Part of the Lyric	84	(1)
Gregory Orr
A Tao of Poetry (an excerpt)	85	(1)
Sam Hamill
On Exploration	86	(1)
James Galvin
Cucina	87	(1)
Martine Bellen
Ars Poetica	88	(1)
Primus St. John
Poetry Reading at the Varna Ruins	89	(1)
John Balaban
Instructions to Be Left Behind	90	(2)
Marvin Bell
Poem Without Music	92	(2)
Jose Hierro
Parable of the Voices	94	(1)
Robert Bringhurst
Recording the Spirit Voices	95	(1)
David Bottoms
Poem	96	(1)
Timothy Liu
Ars Poetica	97	(1)
Dana Levin
Going Back to the Convent	98	(1)
Madeline DeFrees
#69	99	(1)
Han Shan
Poets	100	(2)
Kay Boyle
Poets	102	(1)
James Laughlin
Early Spring East of Town	103	(1)
Yang Chu-yuan
I Know How Every Poet	104	(1)
James Laughlin
Braided Creek (an excerpt)	105	(1)
Jim Harrison
Ted Kooser
An Introduction to My Anthology	106	(1)
Marvin Bell
They Say	107	(1)
Stephen Kuusisto
For the Seventh Day	108	(1)
Sandor Csoori
Poems	109	(1)
Ruth Stone
Singing Aloud	110	(1)
Carolyn Kizer
Poetry Reading	111	(1)
Anna Swir
The Meaning of Life	112	(2)
Patricia Goedicke
Waiting	114	(3)
Shirley Kaufman
The Story of the End of the Story	117	(1)
James Galvin
``Poetry is Verdant''	118	(1)
Jaan Kaplinski
Revisionist Poem---Octavio Paz	119	(1)
Thomas McGrath
Do Not Speak Keresan to a Mescalero Apache	120	(1)
Arthur Sze
Because the Eye Is a Flower Whose Root Is the Hand	121	(1)
Dennis Schmitz
Night Seasons	122	(2)
Stephen Kuusisto
Our Mother Talks About Metaphor	124	(1)
Susan Griffin
The Moon Is a Diamond	125	(1)
Arthur Sze
Ars Poetica	126	(1)
Dana Levin
And It Came to Pass	127	(2)
C.D. Wright
The Ambassador	129	(1)
Pablo Neruda
What Keeps	130	(1)
C.D. Wright
The Word Between the World and God	131	(1)
Emily Warn
Erasing Stars	132	(1)
Stephen Kuusisto
Morning Star	133	(1)
C.D. Wright
Daily Ritual	134	(2)
Shirley Kaufman
At Seventy-Five: Rereading an Old Book	136	(1)
Hayden Carruth
Stories Are Made of Mistakes	137	(3)
James Galvin
Daddy Out Hitch--Hiking At 3:00 A.M.	140	(1)
John Balaban
On This Side of the River	141	(2)
Stephen Berg
The Magician--Made Tree (an Excerpt)	143	(1)
Cyrus Cassells
Photovoltaic	144	(2)
Olga Broumas
Homage to Life: Jules Supervielle	146	(2)
Joseph Stroud
The Snow and the Plum---I	148	(1)
Lu Mei-p'o
The Snow and the Plum---II	148	(1)
Lu Mei P'o
Country Scene	149	(1)
Ho Xuan Hwong
The Last Poem in the World	150	(3)
Hayden Carruth
About the Poets	153	(12)
About the Editor	165