My Carve came today, along with a Spoon River Poetry Review. Also, I picked up a copy of The Canary at a little store that tends to have lots of assorted magazines. I came across a poem by Laurel Snyder in The Canary that surprised me: "You'd come to my house if I were sleeping / naked. If I were naked with naked Britney Spears." I had never read her poetry before, and I expected it to be somehow more ... earnest and relgious. It's funny how one's blog image of a person creates certain expectations.
Not much in Spoon River: a lot of clunky midwestern style poems. Jeffery Bahr's "Dinosaurs" is good, upholding the honor of the bloggers. Carve has Jordan's "Overcast Market," among other good things.
11 comentarios:
Jonathan,
Thanks for picking up the Canary. Laurel posted that poem to her blog months ago and I immediately asked her for it for the Canary. It's a hilarious--and really good--poem.
I hope you enjoy the issue. You could even, ahem, "review" it on your blog if you'd like....
Tony
It is hilarious, you're right. I'll be wending my way through the Canary gradually. I'd rather just pick out things I like at random than try to "review" the whole issue. There's certainly a lot to like. I'm going to have to buy the back issues off you to have a complete set.
"earnest and religious"--really? Wow. I'd have said spiritual if irreverent first.
Gina
just wondering:
what exactly is a
"midwestern style poem"
are they all clunky?
are only midwestern style poems clunky?
are there non-clunky midwestern poems?
are there "clunky" poems by poets
of either coast?
the OED which does not include "clunky"
says "clunk" is
a sound like that of a cork being pulled from a wine bottle;
from the Swedish/Norwegian
for "gulp" or "guggle"
___
The Spoon River Poetry Review identifies each poet by State, so the Midwestern preponderance is easy to see. I didn't know the word clunky would send anybody to the OED! Without ruling out clunkiness in other regions, it is clear that there is something gracelessly midwestern in many of these poems.
Yup to them clunky middlewestern poems. They get us through the night, get us through the winters, get us through the sloggin' when the sloggin' gets deep.
I'm not above looking
everyword up
in the OED.
and now I discover
that gracelessness is a midwestern Quality
imagine that!
I suppose I should
shut my fingers up
as I have not read the poems
and they might well fit
my definition of "clunky" too
still and all, Jonathan
there are midwestern sylphs
ya know
It occurs to me, Jonathan, that you maybe ought revise a representative clunky middlwestern poem, to get the clunky middlewestern-ness out of it, so we can see the before and after and learn from it. Then us clunky middlwestern poets can mend our ways. It appears you have a "gestalt" for clunky middlwestern poems, and maybe you could enumerate their qualities for us in more specific fashion.
God knows we're clunky; perhaps you can help us to count the ways.
___
I looked again, and a lot of these clunky poems are written by people from the South, the West, and the East. I still think of them as midwestern, somehow, but that is probably unfair. It's the style of clunky poets from everywhere.
Canary & CARVE are getting to be like peanut butter and chocolate these days. Or maybe it's tequila and tragedy.
LOL!
Thanks for the shout out! I should say that it's rare for me to do something pop-culture-y in a poem, tho fucking and nudity are not so rare.
That poem was written in blogger, as a "poem to attract google traffic". Hence the Britney ref as well at the GBV ref (they broke up that week."
Blogs and bloggers are the best.
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