The playwright Richard Foreman wrote somewhere (if I'm remembering correctly) that there are human emotions we don't have words for, and that to invoke them with language requires a strategically indirect approach (which will often resemble nonsense).
Before that, I did the same with Paul Celan, and after that, I did the same with Denise Levertov. Now I’m doing it with Federico García Lorca, as part of learning Spanish (though I have not been as steady about reading a poem every day with him). Here’s my summary of the Levertov: https://111-words.ghost.io/reading-denise-levertov-for-three-and/
Really enjoyed this.
Intriguing, in a vague, confusing sense…;)
The playwright Richard Foreman wrote somewhere (if I'm remembering correctly) that there are human emotions we don't have words for, and that to invoke them with language requires a strategically indirect approach (which will often resemble nonsense).
Some Trees is an appealing title. I’ll have to find a copy of this. I like being confused and feeling like words have arbitrary meanings sometimes.
Also do you think “the vague snow of many clay pipes” is about plumbing? Pipes for playing music? Pipes for smoking?
I was thinking smoking pipes, but ashbery could well mean both!
I enjoyed two-and-a-half years of reading Ashbery from 2017 to 2020. https://111-words.ghost.io/reading-john-ashbery-for-two-and-half/
Before that, I did the same with Paul Celan, and after that, I did the same with Denise Levertov. Now I’m doing it with Federico García Lorca, as part of learning Spanish (though I have not been as steady about reading a poem every day with him). Here’s my summary of the Levertov: https://111-words.ghost.io/reading-denise-levertov-for-three-and/
And the difference between Ashbery and Levertov: https://111-words.ghost.io/the-contrast-between-quoting-denise/
oh cool.
I have never really read Levertov? I keep feeling I should, but haven't gotten there yet...
I have a special reason to be interested in her work: she was my poetry teacher in the 1980s.
Oh wow!