Round 63

Yusef: "The Lost Boy" by William Tremblay

Bob: "For Larry Eigner, Silent" by Ron Silliman

Remember when they used to say language poetry was "non-syntactical" or "non-referential"? The same kind of people who went around saying the Derrida didn't believe in the existence of reality. Silliman's poem for Eigner is quite referential, and every sentence has a perfectly transparent syntax too. It even has plenty of "content," the word that Yusef uses in his introduction to write off the language and post-language groups completely. If you only know Silliman from his blog, you are missing out on quite a bit. This poem is quite moving: the tribute of one poet to another, written in a way that makes us FEEL the respect for Eigner's craft: it is inherent in Ron's own language:

Moon in the poplars
sets just before the sun
first rising throws shadows
the way a ventriloquist does voices
long, lean, stretching back into compactness

As for Tremblay, he has also written an excellent poem, with some unforgettable images:

... Though his bones
mouldered in cold drizzle he comes
crashing through wild plum thickets
clutching at my shirt, asking where I was
in his sagebrush hours...

Tremblay obviously has talent to spare, although the poem is over-written for my taste, especially toward the end. It is certainly one of the best poems in the Kumunyakaa volume. It might have beaten a lesser poem than Ron's. Another round for Bob.

After 63:

17-35-10