23 oct 2004

My objections to Jorie are that she's

humorless
garrulous
too self-consciously elegant
no sense of "voice," or of a speaker one would want to listen to
not very many memorable lines or pasages
a little bit dull

On the positive side of the ledger, she has

a serious and sustained "project"
a deep sense of seriousness

and she takes herself very seriously

So I cannot simply dismiss her. When I'm not reading her, I think of her as a poet I really should read more of. Yet every time I attempt the reading I fail to connect with her work. It's not crap, it's just well-written and somewhat pretentious verbiage. Once in a while I find a passage that I like, but the poetic energy is rarely sustained. Maybe some day the light bulb will go off in my head and I'll get why others thinks she is great.

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