What is it about Coolidge's poetry that suggests that he is a drummer?
He's written about it himself, and my observations wouldn't add much.  
Not to get too technical, but it's about a way of "feeling" time go by.  That
push-pull of playing in relation to the beat.  Every poet has a metrical 
signature, a distinctive way of articulating time through language.  This 
might sound vague, but I think I can describe it with some precision.  
Jordan's 10-year old memory of it is pretty accurate, actually.  
It's not about meter per se.  Its about the rhythmic phrasing in 
relation to the phonological structure of the language.  A word
used as another part of speech, noun as adjective, verb as noun,
creates a sort of syntactic "hiccup" which is felt rhythmically.  He 
is also fond of grouping stresses together, two or three at a time:
"the stone's last lap."  
"The brought back beast shuns the hands"  [four stresses in a row!]  
"A red sun bursts"  
I could draw little phonological trees to show you how this is done, but 
I can't on this blog.   (I need to get a scanner.)   
 He has read his Beckett and his Kerouac, strong
rhythmic influences on him.  
More later, my girls are back from swimmng.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario