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<p class='description'><span>A weblog focused on contemporary poetry and poetics.</span></p>
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Showing posts with label <b>Robert Kelly</b>. <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/mirrors/ronsilliman.blogspot.com/">Show all posts</a>
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<div class='status-msg-hidden'>Showing posts with label <b>Robert Kelly</b>. <a href="https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/mirrors/ronsilliman.blogspot.com/">Show all posts</a></div>
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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Tuesday, October 11, 2011</span></h2>

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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'><a href="http://rk-ology.com/Logic_of_the_World_videos.php"><span style='color:windowtext'>Logic of the World<span class=GramE>:</span><br> The Poetics of Robert Kelly</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%'>A Day of Talks in NYC Celebrating <br> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kelly_%28poet%29"><span style='color:windowtext'>Robert</span></a> <a href="http://rk-ology.com/Home_Page.php"><span style='color:windowtext'>Kelly's</span></a> 75th&nbsp;Birthday <br> and his 50 Years at Bard<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText align=center style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:center'><iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fLyuPOszk-Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>

<p class=MsoPlainText align=center style='margin-bottom:10.0pt;text-align:center'><iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/cVaVDKafjfU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1; mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Talks by<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/SsS9uZFOIWY" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Elizabeth Robinson</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/hPi9lDYJBRI" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Vyt Bakaitis</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/IBjhWom0gmA" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Michael Ives</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/UChIJTOmVTE" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Mary <span class=SpellE>Caponegro</span></span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/2bRjpIrYF00" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Thomas Meyer</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/iiGKijzXzco" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Kristin Prevallet</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/SAG2OPyRruw" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Roger van Voorhees</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/v6iJUAE9yWA" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>John <span class=SpellE>Yau</span></span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="//youtu.be/vzGUb1OsGrE" target="_blank"><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>Carey Harrison</span></strong></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><a href="//youtu.be/aM6mv4QWUxM" target="_blank"><strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:normal; mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'>David Levi Strauss</span></strong></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/J4-_G74I_Ns" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Charles Stein</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/Xj1ld7JRYuw" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Carolee <span class=SpellE>Schneemann</span></span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/d4RosvAd67A" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>George Quasha and his &quot;Desire&quot; video</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/XsAsQ-zd93I" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Peter Lamborn Wilson</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"; color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242; mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/JjWL_ZyStk8" target="_blank"><span class=SpellE><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Phong</span></span><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'> Bui</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1; mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align=center style='text-align:center'><strong><span style='font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";font-weight:normal;mso-bidi-font-weight:bold'><a href="//youtu.be/SQ852cWV3xQ" target="_blank"><span style='color:windowtext'>Nicole Peyrafitte</span></a></span></strong><span style='font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><i style='mso-bidi-font-style: normal'><span style='font-size:8.0pt;line-height:115%'>Thanks to George Quasha (who recorded it all)<span class=GramE>,</span><br> to the organizers &amp; presenters<br> &amp; to <a href="http://rk-ology.com/Home_Page.php"><span style='color:windowtext'>rk-ology.com</span></a>,<br> where all of these are housed<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Saturday, May 07, 2011</span></h2>

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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Thursday, April 21, 2011</span></h2>

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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:20.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1; mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'><a href="http://www.bard.edu/news/releases/pr/fstory.php?id=2105"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Bard</span></a> Celebrates <a href="http://bit.ly/eLDdzB"><span style='color:#0D0D0D; mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Robert</span></a> <a href="http://www.rk-ology.com/"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor: text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Kelly</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1; mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Tonight @ 7 PM, Olin Hall<br><br> </span></b><a href="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5143/5639413974_84c4502430_b.jpg"><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height: 115%;color:black;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-no-proof:yes;text-decoration:none; text-underline:none'><img border="0" height="501" src="https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/mirrors/ronsilliman.blogspot.com/images/lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/KJJXq44RQpJc1_391LMJVYpBQi-0gN7v-L8V5RsLiMXMRK55tBCO7s56bpM8mIPJt2ITFcymD_EP7mDaE-8igC2Y2k_g3LMn-lKR5pIKisUtkqk%3Ds0-d" width="400"></span></b></a><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1; mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#0D0D0D; mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Honoring <a href="http://blogs.abouttown.us/books/2011/04/13/honoring-robert-kelly/"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>Robert Kelly</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;line-height:115%'>May 7 in NYC<br> <a href="http://logicoftheworld.blogspot.com/"><span style='mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:windowtext'>The Logic of the World</span><span style='color:windowtext'><br> </span><span style='mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;color:windowtext'>The Poetics of Robert Kelly</span><span style='color:windowtext'><br> </span></a>with<br> Vyt Bakaitis, <span class=SpellE>Phong</span> Bui, Mary <span class=SpellE>Caponegro</span>,<br> Carey Harrison, Pierre Joris, Jonas Mekas,<br> Tom Meyer, Nicole <span class=SpellE>Peyrafitte</span>, Kristen Prevallet,<br> Elizabeth Robinson, George Quasha, Robert Kelly,<br> <span class=SpellE>Carolee</span> <span class=SpellE>Schneeman</span>, Charles Stein, David Levi-Strauss,<br> Peter Lamborn Wilson, John <span class=SpellE>Yau</span>, <br> Roger Van Voorhees, Michael Ives &amp; more<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%'>A reading by Kelly in 6 videos<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight: normal'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:115%;color:#0D0D0D; mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'><a href="//youtu.be/JJPq68SDmnM"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor: text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>I</span></a>, <a href="//youtu.be/RaB2LtCj3ZU"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>II</span></a>, <a href="//youtu.be/EWDsJfoRVHA"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor: text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>III</span></a>, <a href="//youtu.be/-I194Hbeb-M"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>IV</span></a>, <a href="//youtu.be/dZyIFLvy81o"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor: text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color:#0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha:100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms: "lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>V</span></a>, <a href="//youtu.be/rpSJn0SUi9E"><span style='color:#0D0D0D;mso-themecolor:text1;mso-themetint:242;mso-style-textfill-fill-color: #0D0D0D;mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor:text1;mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%;mso-style-textfill-fill-colortransforms:"lumm=95000 lumo=5000"'>VI</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='color:black'><img height="252" id="_x0000_i1025" src="https://writing.upenn.edu/epc/mirrors/ronsilliman.blogspot.com/images/lh5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/qw5hX3lBgu4nn6Gy9lz_x5d-Ua02SuSGiIs_HdS7-i8MDpO0EDzEGzCpt5KAV01A4IMvW97yRnzDsdvqdiVIHRodVISea1w6EiEnx2sxQgQ-%3Ds0-d" width="163"><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><st1:place><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Krishna</span></st1:place><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> had made a pun at her book club and nobody had gotten the joke. It had been something that substituted <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>yam </i>for <span class=SpellE><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Ya</i></span><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'> </i>as in <span class=SpellE><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Ya-Ya</i></span><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'> Sisterhood. </i>She recounted her problem &#8211; &#8220;they must have thought I was so stupid&#8221; &#8211; over the dinner table and both of the boys started coming up with other funny, or at least ostensibly funny, combinations involving the word the <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>yam. </i>It was all quite silly &amp; I&#8217;m sure it was one of those &#8220;you had to be there&#8221; moments that bond families while helping to create the sort of private language all families have &#8211; for example, the way my family (and that of my brother) have used <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>boppo </i>for years to mean &#8220;potholder,&#8221; because it&#8217;s the private term we grew up with, my grandparents having adopted it when my mother, then just a toddler, settled on <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>boppo </i>to refer to same. My mother&#8217;s grandkids now number in double digits and if these kids end up having families that adopt that term, and their kids do likewise, then a couple of generations out we might find it starting to emerge into something akin to general usage. But right now, anyway, <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>yam </i>is the charged term in our house. Any ordinary question that can be responded to, however improbably, with something containing <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>yam </i>is fair game. <o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>So when, looking later this same week through the one hundred or books that have arrived in the mail this past month, I noted a book whose back cover reads<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='margin-bottom:12.0pt;text-align:center'><b style='mso-bidi-font-weight:normal'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>YAM <br>
YAD<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>I had to show it to </span><st1:place><span  style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Krishna</span></st1:place><span  style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>. The words are the title reversed from the front cover (as tho you were reading the cover &#8220;from behind&#8221;), the book being <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><a href="http://www.modern-review.com/parsifal/authors/mayday.html"><span style='color:black'>May Day</span></a> </i>by <a href="http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/kelly/"><span style='color:black'>Robert Kelly</span></a>, fresh out from <a href="http://www.modern-review.com/parsifal/home.html"><span  style='color:black'>Parsifal Editions</span></a>. Then </span><st1:place><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Krishna</span></st1:place><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> asked to see the book, noting that the design was beautiful (which it certainly is), and read a poem aloud to Jesse &amp; me. Then she read a second one. <span class=GramE>Then a third.</span> &#8220;He&#8217;s really good,&#8221; she noted, to which I immediately agreed. Krishna grew up, more or less, reading the Allen anthology (one reason why we have three separate copies of it around the house), knew who Charles Olson was the day I met her &amp;, as it turned out, had actually attended the very first poetry reading I&#8217;d ever curated some four years before we &#8220;officially&#8221; met, a benefit with Robert Creeley, Joanne Kyger &amp; Ed Dorn for the prison movement group with which I was working. It totally stands to reason that Robert Kelly is going to be her kind of poet. Mine too. <o:p></o:p></span></p> 

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Kelly is one of the younger New Americans or post-New Americans (take your pick) who stands as a bridge betwixt that aesthetic and langpo. It&#8217;s not an accident that Kelly, in fact, had the very first poem in the first issue of <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>This, </i>the magazine edited by Barrett Watten and, for the first couple of issues, Robert Grenier. In more respects than one might imagine<span class=GramE>,</span> Kelly has a lot of similarities with Clark Coolidge. Both write enormous amounts &#8211; <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kelly_(poet)"><span style='color:black'>Kelly&#8217;s Wikipedia site</span></a> notes that he&#8217;s published &#8220;more than fifty&#8221; books of poetry &amp; prose, and the note itself hasn&#8217;t been updated in eight years &#8211; and it would seem that each poet must easily produce more than one book of new work every year. Both also have a range around which almost all of their mature writing seems to operate, tho they are somewhat different from one another as to what that range might be. And both give an awful lot of authority to the role of the ear in the poem. <o:p></o:p></span></p> 

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Right now, if <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>May Day </i>and the recent <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><a href="http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/mirrors/ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2006/01/joanne-kygers-night-palace-wasnt-only.html"><span style='color:black'>Shame</span></a>, </i>his collaborative prose work with <a href="http://www.engeler.de/root.html"><span style='color:black'>Birgit Kempker</span></a>, are any indication, Kelly is in an especially productive period of his writing, at the top of his form. Here&#8217;s an untitled poem from <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>May Day</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black'>We say he went to heaven<br>
or heaven happened to him<br>
right here, like <span class=SpellE>Foucauld</span><br>
in Africa, blood over white<br>
<br>
sometimes the comedy<br>
comes first, Marx&#8217;s<br>
patterned lute that sang<br>
the looms of Lombardy<br>
<br>
all work and no stained glass<br>
the gods exist to take<br>
this pain away, gold filigreed<br>
their skins of lapis blue<br>
<br>
Marx&#8217;s lute in Mao&#8217;s fingers<br>
no one understands<br>
power is the choosing not to tell<br>
or not to kill<br>
<br>
I am in the sky, it said,<br>
winged, of either sex<br>
as your body may have need<br>
my six wings all hovering<br>
<br>
they cover us both<br>
the wrap, finale, apocalypse<br>
of all our skin<br>
unwrapping the mystery<br>
<br>
to spill this ordinary thing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>I don&#8217;t think you need to know the difference between <a href="http://www.dacb.org/stories/algeria/defoucauld_charles.html"><span style='color:black'>Charles de <span class=SpellE>Foucauld</span></span></a> and <a href="http://www.foucault.info/documents/"><span style='color:black'>Michel Foucault</span></a> to read this poem (tho it probably helps not to presume one is the other). Rather, the poem reminds me of how, when, in the introduction to <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'><a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm"><span style='color:black'>A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel&#8217;s Philosophy of Right</span></a>, </i><span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>Marx wrote that religion &#8220;<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opiate_of_the_masses"><span style='color:black'>is the opium of the people</span></a>,&#8221; he clearly intended the term <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>opium </i>to be understood <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>medicinally </i>and not in terms of opium dens or recreational drug use: &#8220;the gods exist to take / this pain away.&#8221; But Marx&#8217;s &#8220;lute&#8221; &#8211; his celebration of the actual labor of peasants &#8211; becomes something quite different in the brutal &amp; stupid re-education programs that characterized life under the Gang of Four in the PRC. Yet what amounted to a kind of class genocide in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span   style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>China</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'> of the 1960s was experienced very differently by the French mystic when he came to live among the poorest peasants of </span><st1:place><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>North Africa</span></st1:place><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>. As <span class=SpellE>Foucauld</span> had written when he served as the custodian in the convent of the Poor <span class=SpellE>Clares</span> of Nazareth earlier in his career,<o:p></o:p></span></p> 

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:.5in;margin-bottom:0in;margin-left:.5in;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial'>I have now the unutterable, the inexpressibly profound happiness of raking manure.<o:p></o:p></span></p> 

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Kelly has never wavered in his career in knowing which side of this argument he preferred. At the same time, he&#8217;s not pinning his soul on a single narrative that would transform spirituality into institutional religion: <o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black'>I am in the sky, it said<span class=GramE>,</span><br> 
winged, of either sex<br>
as your body may have need<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>I can imagine an interesting test for an undergraduate literature course that had, as one question, a requirement to identify and discuss &#8220;the ordinary thing&#8221; of this poem&#8217;s final line. I would add a further question: <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>is a &#8220;wrong&#8221; answer possible?</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>Very much like Coolidge, Kelly, even tho he writes poems &#8211; there are a few booklength projects, like <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Shame </i>or <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Axon <span class=SpellE>Dendron</span> Tree, </i>in his oeuvre, but even they seem to stop at the last page &#8211; actually falls on the poetry side of what I think of as the poem vs. poetry divide. It&#8217;s as if the poems channel into some wavelength of which they are representative strands. At one point, reading this book, I began a wonderful piece entitled &#8220;The Politics of You&#8221; and, when it came time to turn the page, turned two by accident, so that I found myself reading the end of &#8220;Twelfth Night,&#8221; and it made &#8211; aesthetically at least &#8211; excellent sense. Here is the collaged text:<o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-top:0in;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:12.0pt;margin-left:.5in'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;color:black'>I meant a politics unwinding<br>
the machinery, the <span class=SpellE>bluegreen</span><br>
feeling that just happens<br>
when a thing is finished<br>
even if it&#8217;s not finished well<br>
or something&#8217;s put away<br>
into its place and the mind is clear<br>
for a minute or two, losing<br>
your colonies after a war<br>
no more Togo no more <span class=SpellE>Kamerun</span><br>
I mean where are my legs<br>
to stand, why is the earth<br>
denied to those it bore?<br>
A Latin question, the kind<br>
old poems ask and colleges<br>
yawn over for a thousand years,<br>
don&#8217;t get me wrong I&#8217;m asking<br>
for you to be beside me<br>
to live in touch as some men live in hope,<br>
a cathedral is never finished<br>
always a ruin, the great abbey<br>
open to the instruction of the wind,<br>
a roofless love, the woman I forgot<br>
some called her turquoise<br>
because her eyes were ocean<br>
in that sallow place, <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>cubicula<br>
<span class=SpellE>locanda</span> </i>saw Apollinaire<br>
rooms for rent in Latin<br>
for the students, nobody knows<br>
how Flemish I really am<br>
but those who have felt<br>
my dame mustache <span class=SpellE>sur</span> la <span class=SpellE>nuque</span><br>
and breathed in my fantasizing breath,<br>
Christ stumbling into Brussels<br>
in <span class=SpellE>Ensor&#8217;s</span> painting, and I am all<br>
the other faces, mask under mask<br>
until the simplest touches<br>
you and goes to heaven, how easy<br>
such a politics could be if we had a little<br>
bungalow right near the beach<br>
and money is only good in drugstores<br>
on toothpaste and Vaseline and soap<br>
and we eat whatever the fishermen catch<br>
and they catch whatever we throw away,<br>
this is the art history museum please<br>
you follow the footsteps of the visitors<br>
and see what they see, what they look at<br>
longest must be the best, write it down<br>
as your dissertation, who are you<br>
to go against the current of the world?<br>
I was a salmon once and look at me now<br>
with a twisted jaw and full of lust<br>
and the only way for me to move is up,<br>
if you love me there is plenty to eat<br>
shadows and the warm tabernacles<br>
and even among the avalanches<br>
the rhythm of all things is our salvation,<br>
we ride our world between our legs,<br>
people fear me often when we meet<br>
because some text is crumbling<br>
from my mouth, reservoir and baptistery<br>
and gentle old stone basin in a cloister<br>
all the ruses of water, <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>o mirror<br>
of your stillness, </i>hazardous face &#8211;<br>
when the wind blows I see<br>
what I will look like when I&#8217;m old<br>
but I could be your beast until the end,<br>
I saw my death year cut in plain marble<br>
of somewhere else, some other god<br>
crept onto the altar last night,<br>
there is always another color hidden<br>
inside what we see, like a girl with<br>
an amber lozenge in her mouth<br>
you&#8217;ll never know the taste of<br>
till you kiss her but she runs away.<br>
<br>
Support me by the fabric<br>
I mean the factory of dream<br>
by which we are clothed<br>
and dare to walk along the road<br>
from this town to another<br>
without apology for our feebleness<br>
nakedness, only two legs<span class=GramE>,</span><br>
only two hands, how will I ever.<br>
<br>
And that is the little glory of us<br>
we have to invent calculus every day<br>
and learn a new language<br>
that calls itself Greek again<br>
but this Plato is not like I remember<br>
and his Socrates is nailed to a barn door<br>
and his Alcibiades is a girl in the woods<br>
running naked as a fox for a forgetting. <o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>If you don&#8217;t have the book to check against, I don&#8217;t think a reader can honestly tell where one poem ends &amp; the other picks up. Obviously, such a reading is a form of violence to Kelly&#8217;s poetry &#8211; <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Forgive me, Robert! </i>&#8211; but I think the  result, this Levitican text, demonstrates several things about Kelly&#8217;s work. One is that it often moves laterally, bringing in many different topics, tales, even languages, while it also continually returns to certain themes &amp; elements again &amp; again &#8211; the Latin of Apollinaire &amp; the Greek of Plato &amp; Alcibiades come from two different poems, yet I at least find this mélange of my own misreading to be quite powerful &amp; moving. As poetry, it works completely. Now both of the two source poems here are considerably tighter &#8211; closer to poems than poetry, at least in relative terms &#8211; than this text would make it appear. But the underlying values of  each are, I think, those of poetry more than of poems &#8211; they have more in common with Charles Olson or Louis Zukofsky or Pound&#8217;s <i tyle='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Cantos </i>than they do the fixed positions &amp;  formal containments one finds, say, in the work of virtually any School of Quietude poet, and which can be found as well in the writings of such post-avants as Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Jonathan Williams, Frank O&#8217;Hara (<span class=SpellE><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Biotherm</i></span><i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'> </i>would be an exception), Jack Spicer or Denise Levertov. Kelly in this sense is decidedly a writer of poetry, even when it shows up, as here, in what clearly are poems. <o:p></o:p></span></p> 

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>What this means is that you can pick up Kelly at almost any point &#8211; just open a book and start reading anywhere &#8211; and you will almost always get a good result. Another is that Kelly could, if he wanted, take on a project of some heft &#8211; say, equivalent to Ashbery&#8217;s <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Flow Chart, </i>which certainly is more words even if not more pages than <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Axon <span class=SpellE>Dendron</span> Tree </i>&#8211; and it would be totally readable, cover to cover, perhaps more so than Ashbery&#8217;s poem, which often feels at odds with its own scale (unlike <i style='mso-bidi-font-style:normal'>Three Poems</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></p>

<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black'>But also like Coolidge, I think Kelly&#8217;s decision to write poetry within poems<span class=GramE>,<span style='mso-spacerun:yes'> </span>resulting</span> in many mostly small books, makes it easy, too easy perhaps, to undervalue his accomplishments as a writer. The number of poets of the generation immediately older than mine (who came into their own as poets during the 1960s) who are still writing and publishing new work has dwindled noticeably in recent years &#8211; the New Americans are down to a handful &#8211; and the number of such poets who are, right now, at the very top of their game as writers may even be a list of just one. We&#8217;re fortunate that one is Robert Kelly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Monday, December 02, 2002</span></h2>

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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Robert Kelly&#8217;s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Finding the Measure </i>is full of poems of
great interest beyond the &#8220;prefix&#8221; I looked at yesterday, only five of which
(out of 43) make their way into Kelly&#8217;s selected <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Actions. </i>While the &#8220;prefix&#8221; is included, among my favorite of
the excluded works is &#8220;On a Picture of a Black Bird Given to Me by Arthur
Tress,&#8221; as close to an objective poem as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Measure
</i>contains. It opens:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Raven<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>in
</span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Chiapas</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">beak</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> up open to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<st1:state><st1:place><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">fla</span></span></st1:place></st1:state><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">t</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> white Mexican light<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">against</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> which an arch is breaking its back to join the
broken sky<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">barbs</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> of its feathers hang down, it cries out<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">for</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> a world full of carrion<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">but</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> its claws<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">hold</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> firm &amp; </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">fla</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">t<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .75in; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">the</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> top of the ruined sill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The poem demonstrates
conclusively Kelly&#8217;s ability to be far more than a poet of pure statement. The
prosody of that first stanza is simply stunning &#8211; not a single syllable that
does not actively contribute above &amp; beyond the denotative level of the
words or their connotative resonances. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Another wonderful poem can
be found on the facing page, &#8220;To the Memory of Giordano Bruno,&#8221; a poem in two
columns, the right one of which has it is lines, words &amp; letters printed in
reverse, so that one need read it in a mirror. A third excluded poem that
certainly had its impact on the young </span><st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;">Ron Silliman</span></st1:personname><span style="font-family: Arial;"> as reader is &#8220;First in an Alphabet of Sacred
Animals,&#8221; a meditation on murder that begins<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The
ANT for all his history is a stranger<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
his message is the gospel of an alien order<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
his &amp; his &amp; his<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">works</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
are furious in the crust of the earth<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">his</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
house &amp; his </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">brea</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial;">d<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">(We
must start with him because he is other,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">he</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
comes from a nowhere underneath us<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
returns again &amp; does not know us)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">this</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> is
the easiest animal to kill.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Today
I did not kill an ant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">a</span> great big
black one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
it became necessary to think<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
price of an ant&#8217;s death:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">nothing</span> we do<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
without consequence)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>&amp; in the taking of an ant&#8217;s life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
taking of life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But
the ant is not an albatross &amp; dies easy<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
soon his carcass is gone, who knows where they go<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">the</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
bodies of insects we kill,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">when</span> we take life<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">what</span> do we give?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">-What
is the <span class="GramE">price</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
killing an ant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">-What
intricate microscopic karma do we <span class="GramE">fulfill</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">in</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
crushing him<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">-What
cosmic debt does he repay under my <span class="GramE">foot</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">-Will
we notice the <span class="GramE">pain</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">with</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
which we must one day surely atone for his death<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">-Or
are there beings (&amp; are there beings)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">who</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
step on us lightly as we tread ants?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">that</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> is
the hideous question someone is always asking<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial;"> after </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
onward for another page before concluding with a section in prose.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Kelly&#8217;s thesis here, as elsewhere, is compelled not
to argue for the ant simply for its sake, but to connect it up, here to </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Egypt</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial;"> &amp; thus to that larger system within the word
&#8220;Sacred&#8221; in the title. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Also excluded from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Actions </i>is the twelve-part &#8220;Zodiac
Cycle,&#8221; a series that is accorded pride of place in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Measure</i>, with each section &#8211; individual poems really &#8211; illustrated
with its astrological symbol printed large in deep blue <span class="GramE">ink.</span>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">A closer reading of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Actions</i></span> <span style="font-family: Arial;">would I suspect show that the elimination of a
sequence such <span class="GramE">as<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>&#8220;</span>Zodiac
Cycle&#8221; is not accidental. Kelly&#8217;s writing offers so very many choices &#8211; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Finding the Measure,</i> after all, was the
14<sup>th</sup> book of poems of Kelly&#8217;s published in just nine years; in his
spare time, he also edited <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Controversy
of Poets</i>, wrote a novel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Scorpions,</i></span> <span style="font-family: Arial;">and published a liturgy &#8211;
that one could easily publish a half dozen selected editions, each of which
presented a very different Kelly. Thus while the Kelly of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Actions</i> remains a man interested in the alternate wisdom
traditions, the mysticism that was front &amp; center in his early books is
presented here as incidental. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">My own interest in Kelly, as
with </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Duncan</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial;">, had more to do with measure than mysticism. To this
day I have never quite understood why these two phenomena appear to be linked,
inextricable. Sound, it has always struck me, is an ideal antidote as an
organizing &amp; motive principle for the poem to the shallow surfaces of an
unreflective dramatic monologue. Among the many poets that Kelly is &amp; has
been, is a superb practitioner of melopoiea.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The poem that follows &#8220;First
in an Alphabet of Sacred Animals,&#8221; &#8220;Smith Cove Meditation,&#8221; has a title
reminiscent of Olson, but the text is closer kin to Gertrude Stein. It begins:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Across
the tone there is the one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Everything
is easier if there are women in it<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">but</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
past the tone<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>there is the bone,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">inside</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
the bone there is the one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One
&amp; bone; one times bone is bone, one bone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One
&amp; bone are tone. Going across<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
taking them away<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">from</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
each other. Orphan bone,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">widowed</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>Up on the hill<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">a</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> widow
lives, nurturing the tone.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Her son the bone.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> From their garden<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">on</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> an
August afternoon<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">you</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> can
see the one out on the water<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">all</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
waves &amp; all the town&#8217;s streets<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">all</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
bright places &amp; far<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">people</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">,
o some of them are gone,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">gone</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> to
bone &amp; gone to one, fallen<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">the</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
castle of the bone, fallen the castle<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
enduring tone, the one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> over
the harbor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Every plausible combination
of &#8220;o&#8221; &amp; &#8220;n&#8221; is brought to bear &#8211; one can almost feel the deeper resonance
of &#8220;afternoon&#8221; the way one might individual notes of a carillon. One might here
argue that the &#8220;tone&#8221; of this poem is the selfsame &#8220;<span class="SpellE">mantram</span>&#8221;
Kelly writes of in the &#8220;Prefix&#8221; to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Measure</i>,
and while it is a radically different music than the rich alternation of
consonant &amp; vowel in the description of the blackbird, what it demonstrates
precisely is Kelly&#8217;s to the poem of sound. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Right around 1970, a number
of different events occurred that would transform the role sound played in
poetry socially. Olson&#8217;s death in January of that year, followed a year later
by </span><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Blackburn</span></st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">, shut the door on any hard-edged conception of
speech as the prosodic determinant of poetic form. Already Creeley had moved
toward a more relaxed notion of same in his 1968 volume <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Pieces</i>, the potentially contradictory influences of Ted Berrigan
&amp; Louis Zukofsky combining to soften the tone of its linked sequences.
When, in early 1971, Robert Grenier declared &#8220;I HATE SPEECH,&#8221; in the first
issue of <span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This</i></span>,
he was already jousting with an opponent that had largely abandoned the field.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Similarly, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Duncan</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial;">&#8217;s decision to not publish another book for 15 years
after his 1968 <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bending the Bow</i> muted
his enormous influence on younger poets. Combined with Olson&#8217;s &amp;
Blackburn&#8217;s absence &amp; Creeley&#8217;s shift, </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Duncan</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial;">&#8217;s step away from the scene transformed the role of
sound in the poem &#8211; so prominent a feature in poetry for twenty years &#8211; into
something of a non-issue in the 1970s. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But if <span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>magazine&#8217;s first issue proved functionally to be announcement of
this shift in poetics, it was Robert Kelly who had the literal first word:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">If
this were the place to begin<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> not,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">starts</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
with the disk-sun-boat &#8211; a journey<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">we</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> can
share,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">a</span> precise<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">boat</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> &#8211; <span class="SpellE">Gokstad</span>, not metaphor &#8211;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">to</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> our
own country<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">following</span> the line<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
tensions between the heard &amp; the hard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">facts</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
of the world,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">perception</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Stanza<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
particulars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 2;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Lamplight half led<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">onto</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> my
book &amp; half<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>held back &#8211;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">afraid</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
of the white page<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">My confession.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>The pale blue asters<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">with</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
dark hearts<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">are</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
everywhere these days.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It
begins to rain.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It is possible, even
probable, that Kelly and the editors of <span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>meant
different things by putting this poem first in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">This </i>1. As so often in Kelly, the evocation of &#8220;particulars&#8221; &#8211; in
this instance the Viking vessel <span class="SpellE">Gokstad</span> &#8211; is
something unlikely to be shared by many readers, serving less as a point of
reference than as a demarcation between those in the know &amp; those outside.
It&#8217;s in keeping with Kelly&#8217;s own long interest in alternative systems of
knowledge, and in the poet as shaman or priest. But, with the principle
exceptions of Fanny Howe, John Taggart and <span class="SpellE">Nate</span>
Mackey, an aspect of poetry that has been far less visible in the three decades
since. Thus, when the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Apex of the M </i>gang
were proposing, nearly ten years ago now, that langpo had short <span class="SpellE">shrifted</span> the Gnostic, they came within a hair&#8217;s </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">brea</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Arial;">dth of identifying what I actually suspect could have
started the very revolution in poetics of which they were dreaming, the flip
side of the measure/mysticism coin. The poem as sound, as measure &amp; song as
much as <span class="GramE">speech,</span> let alone the narrow gargling of the
sound poets. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp; if such a poetics is
again possible, or even plausible, reading Kelly &amp; these great books is the
necessary way back in.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Sunday, December 01, 2002</span></h2>

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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Although I knew his work
slightly from his own <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Controversy of
Poets,</i> I hadn&#8217;t focused on Robert Kelly&#8217;s poetry until I got to know some
of his former Bard students: David Perry*, John Gorham and Harvey Bialy, and
through them Tom Meyer. All spoke glowingly of Kelly as a teacher. But it
wasn&#8217;t until I got hold of a copy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Finding
the Measure</i> (Black Sparrow, 1968) that Kelly&#8217;s poetry forced me to pay
attention. The volume&#8217;s preface &#8211; or as Kelly titles it, complete with open-ended
parenthesis, &#8220;(prefix:&#8221; &#8211; is one of the knockdown finest statements of a
poetics I&#8217;ve ever read. Even today, 35 years after it was written, it stands
up:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Finding
the measure is finding the <span class="SpellE">mantram</span>,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
finding the moon, as </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">ind</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">ex
of measure,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
finding the moon&#8217;s source;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">if</span> that source<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">is</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> Sun,
finding the measure is finding<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">the</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
natural articulation of ideas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span>The
organism<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
macrocosm, the organism of language,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">the</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
organism of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I </i>combine in ceaseless <span class="SpellE">naturing</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">to</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
propagate a fourth, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 3;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">the</span> poem,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 5;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">from</span> their trinity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Style
is death. Find the measure is finding<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">a</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
freedom from that death, a way out, a movement<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">forward</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</span>Finding the measure is finding the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">specific</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
music of the hour,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 4;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; </span><span class="GramE">the</span> synchronous<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">consequences</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> of the motion of the whole world.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Style is death. </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">Derrida would have a field day with that, coming as it does in the work
of someone for whom measure &#8211; the line &amp; phrase heard as units at once both
of music &amp; of meaning &#8211; is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>compelling
issue. What does Kelly mean to make so bald a claim?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The answer of course is to
be found first in Kelly&#8217;s assertion that there is such a thing as a &#8220;natural
articulation of ideas,&#8221; followed by his trinity of organisms. The idea of
&#8220;natural articulation,&#8221; may follow out of the old Imagist maxim that &#8220;a new
cadence means a new idea,&#8221; but Kelly weds it very much to an organic vision not
only of the poem but of all existence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It&#8217;s interesting to map
Kelly&#8217;s trinity over, say, Jakobson&#8217;s six functions of language. As I&#8217;ve written
here before, I always think of Jakobson&#8217;s model as three axes, or as pairs of
opposites: addresser, address; contact, code; signifier, signified. Kelly&#8217;s
trinity does fall neatly into those three pairs, especially if one goes back to
Jakobson&#8217;s own discussions of the signified as ultimately contextual, much
broader than the notion of an object for every noun &#8211; Kelly calls it the
&#8220;organism / of the macrocosm.&#8221;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">What Kelly describes as
three axes &#8220;ceaselessly <span class="SpellE">naturing</span>&#8221; to pop out a poem
rather the way a hen does eggs is the grounds for any articulation, not just
verse. Is Kelly arguing after a fashion that it is this particular
configuration of these possibilities that lead to the poem? Perhaps, but more
important is the way in which this text privileges the &#8220;I&#8221; with italics only to
deny its force one stanza later with &#8220;Style is death<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.</i>&#8221; But of course that kind of equation can work both ways: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Death is style</i></span> <span style="font-family: Arial;">might be even more accurate. Phrased thus, we can see
that Kelly is trying very hard to separate out the &#8220;I&#8221; of consciousness from a
second &#8220;I,&#8221; the superego really, that would impose its understanding of
tradition &amp; history encoded through a process that keeps the word from
somehow coming through directly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">That distinction takes me
back to the seemingly self-canceling phrase, &#8220;natural articulation.&#8221; Such a
concept implies a universe in which articulation would be unmediated &amp;
inevitable. Not simply that the flower of my sermon should be its own message,
but that nature itself is just such an ultimate discourse. But Kelly&#8217;s phrase
continues: &#8220;natural articulation <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">of
ideas.</i>&#8221; Thus ideas themselves must <span class="GramE">exist</span> both
prior to &amp; outside of any embodiment in words. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">If the lion could speak we
would have to write it down<span class="GramE">.*</span>* Kelly is aligning the
poem here with a discourse that is, literally, inhuman &#8211; though not necessarily
anti-human. Rather it exists prior to &amp; outside of our merely secular
discursive behaviors. The <span class="SpellE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">mantram</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>of the
first line is, if we follow this logic, a subliminal hum within the universe.
The role for poet is not to alter or direct that energy so much as to enable it
to come through revealed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">All of which, I would argue,
takes us back to the question in this poem of the moon. It is not only that
&#8220;Finding the measure is finding the <span class="SpellE">mantram</span>,&#8221; but
that it is also &#8220;finding the moon, as </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">ind</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">ex of measure, / is finding the moon&#8217;s source.&#8221; The
question of the moon, its relation to Sun (the absence of article here marking
as more than a little like an Egyptian god) &amp; that mysterious idea of
&#8220;source&#8221; traces the other thematic thread that weaves through this </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">tex</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">t. Read strictly, the entire line of reasoning about
the trinity of organisms should apply <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">only
if </i>Sun is understood as &#8220;source&#8221; for the moon. Moon of course being a
loaded term for a poet who has already published a volume of short poems called
<span class="SpellE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lunes</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">On the one hand, the
attributes of the tides &amp; their impact on any number of worldly phenomena
is certainly present, but at a level of obviousness that makes it a <span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> What. </i>Ditto the question of gravity
from earth to moon or vice versa &amp; of sun to either. At a more significant
level, though, I don&#8217;t think this image is decidable except insofar as it pins
the question of articulation up into a cosmology of effects. The poem resonates
exactly as something that cannot be reduced to an argument, a good test of any
poem. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">* Not the
same David Perry who is now active in poetry around New York, whom I think of
as the &#8220;Adventures in Poetry&#8221; David Perry in order to keep them straight in my
head. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">** As indeed
Michael McClure already has.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<h2 class='date-header'><span>Saturday, November 30, 2002</span></h2>

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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Robert Kelly self-published <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree</i></span> <span style="font-family: Arial;">in 1967 as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Salitter</i>
/ 2, distributed variously through his other small press journal, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Matter</i>, as well as the legendary
Asphodel Bookshop of Cleveland, Ohio. The stapled 8&#189; by 14 publication appears
to have been <span class="GramE">mimeographed,</span> a process that would have
limited distribution to the approximately 150 copies that could reliably be run
off each paper master. The process also partly explains why the 80 page
publication was printed only on one side of each page, rendering the volume as
thick as a typical 160-page book. The other part of that explanation lies in
the stapling &#8211; the book is so thick that extra-length staples have been driven
in both front &amp; back, but in no instance make it through the entire volume
&#8211; I have to squeeze them by hand back into place whenever I read from this
volume. This is one fragile book. The title &#8211; centered on a strip of white
paper, 11 inches high but only 2 inches wide &#8211; is glued along the left side of
the cover&#8217;s brown construction paper. The brush strokes of the glue have long
since stained through on my copy.* Because of its size, this volume has spent
35 years sitting atop my book cases, </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">nev</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">er filed within one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This is an awfully fragile,
fugitive publication to argue as one of the defining poetic </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">tex</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">ts of the 1960s, but it certainly is/was such an
event for <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">my </i>1960s. In fact, it may
have proven more so for me than for Kelly, who accords <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tree </i>just one six-page excerpt in his selected poems, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Actions </i>(Black Sparrow, 1995). The
differences between the 1967 edition and his 1995 description of it are worth
considering. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">A note to the reader at the
top of the dedication page reads as follows:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree </i>grew out of my reading of that issue of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Poetry </i>[<a href="http://writing.upenn.edu/epc/mirrors/ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2002_11_01_ronsilliman_archive.html%2384966934">October,
1965</a>] wholly &amp; with immense rightness given over to one section of
Louis Zukofsky&#8217;s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A </i>(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">sic</i>). This poem began swiftly in
response &amp; dictated in the first few dozen lines its own formal procedure.
To the extent that I had any intention, it was to honor Zukofsky by letting his
measure foster a like but different measure in my utterance. The concerns of
this poem are its own, and have no bearing on Zukofsky&#8217;s there or elsewhere,
apart from a few teasing relations. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Kelly discusses <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree&#8217;s </i>formal procedures in
the notes at the back of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Actions:<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree.</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>A long poem organized on a numeric
structure. Each section consists of 111 unnumbered stanzas; the first section&#8217;s
stanzas are nine lines each, the second section&#8217;s of eight, and so on,
diminishing to the last section, 111 one-line stanzas. In my own sense of my
work, this is my first real achievement using any sort of compositional grid or
organizational principal other than the Local Music, which has always been the
self-arising guide of the poem.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The 999 line structure
described here is certainly elegant. However, the opening section of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree </i>is composed of stanzas
of eight lines each, not nine. At least as published in 1967, the poem has 888
lines. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tree</i> begins with, of all
things, an image of golf:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tee<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">off</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&amp;
be<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">on</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
grass<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">this</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> is<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">start</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
eighty<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">leven</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">pages</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">in</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the
book<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">each</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">makes</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">a</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> form<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I
counted<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">7
then<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">8
came<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">or</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> hard<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">to</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
render<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">stanzas</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">like</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
boxes<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">each</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
one<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">a</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> line<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <span class="SpellE">Wace</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">his</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <span class="SpellE">Engels</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">while</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <span class="SpellE">Laзamon</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">his</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
Brut<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">took</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">the</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
augury<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">of</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
heard<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"><span dir="RTL"></span> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">&#8212;<span class="SpellE">sruti</span>&#8212;<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">beginnings</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="SpellE"><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">frutti</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="SpellE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Lazamon</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> &#8211; there are multiple ways to spell that name &amp; Kelly
picks one of the more difficult to cast into HTML &#8211; translated <span class="SpellE">Wace&#8217;s</span> own French translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth&#8217;s
Latin history of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">Britain</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Arial;">, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Brut</i>, into alliterative
verse around 1190. Henry <span class="SpellE">Wace</span>, however, was a mostly
19<sup>th</sup> century religious scholar who focused on early Christianity, a
topic that also concerned Karl Marx&#8217;s collaborator. So Kelly is almost
instantly playing with several layers of connotation at once, the discussion of
form cast into many directions from which the poet might then proceed. <span class="GramE">&amp; does.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It&#8217;s interesting to contrast
Kelly&#8217;s programmatic conception of form with that of his model.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp; </span>Zukofsky&#8217;s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">&#8220;A&#8221; &#8211; 14, Beginning</i> <span class="GramE">An</span>, starts with four
stanzas, even more extreme in their <span class="SpellE">verticalism</span> than
Kelly&#8217;s:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">An<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<st1:city><st1:place><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">oran</span></span></st1:place></st1:city><span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">ge</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">our</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">sun</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">fire</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">pulp</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">whets</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">us</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">(<span class="GramE">everyday</span>)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">for</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">us</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">eat</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">it</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">its</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">fire&#8217;s</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">unconsumed</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">we&#8217;ll</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">not</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">fire</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">there</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">rocketed</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">that</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">poor</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">fools</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">be</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">sure</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">moon</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">loon</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">bless</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">light</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">he</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">pees</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">pea</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">blossom</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">sun&#8217;s</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">peer</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">First of<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">eleven</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> songs<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">beginning</span></i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> An<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">in</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">middle</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<span class="GramE"><span style="font-family: Arial;">solar</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">
winds<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Beginning with the above
italics, Zukofsky proceeds with 169 tercets, all but one line containing two
words, then with 247 tercets with three words &#8211; save for two &#8220;ringers,&#8221; one a
four-line stanza with one word per line, the other just two stanzas further on,
a couplet, one of whose lines has just two words &#8211; before dropping back first
to a <span class="SpellE">tercet</span> of two-word lines, and then two
concluding stanzas of one-word lines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Zukofsky&#8217;s formal focus is
very much on the line, Kelly&#8217;s on the stanza &#8211; it&#8217;s almost as if two men looked
at one phenomenon with just slightly different lenses. Zukofsky&#8217;s conception of
form generates the line, perhaps, but Kelly&#8217;s sense generates the poem. It&#8217;s a
critical, even decisive, difference. In <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red
Actions, </i>Kelly again acknowledges Zukofsky&#8217;s relation to the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree</i>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
The whole poem is
dedicated to Louis Zukofsky, in thanks for his creative kindness, as a poet to
us all, and as a man to me when I was beginning. He is one of the Four Masters
(with Olson, <st1:city><st1:place>Duncan</st1:place></st1:city>, <st1:place><span class="GramE">Blackburn</span></st1:place>) who boxed my ears.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">One name Kelly doesn&#8217;t
mention here is that of Jackson Mac Low, whose work he certainly knew, having
published several pieces in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Controversy
of Poets,</i> but whom I suspect Kelly must have seen more as a peer, given how
late Mac Low got started publishing<span class="GramE">.*</span>* Mac Low&#8217;s sense
of program as the motive principle behind a </span><st1:state><st1:place><span style="font-family: Arial;">tex</span></st1:place></st1:state><span style="font-family: Arial;">t was already quite developed by the mid-1960s. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree,</i> however, may be the
first such attempt to &#8220;just write poetry&#8221; by such method without constraint as
to how the vocabulary might look or sound. Where Mac Low was consciously
striking the ego&#8217;s presence in his work, Kelly gives it pretty much free rein.
In this sense, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree </i>is
closer to two other programmatic texts that were composed in the late 1960s,
Ted Berrigan&#8217;s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sonnets </i>and Kenneth
Koch&#8217;s <span class="GramE"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> the Sun Tries to Go On.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Axon Dendron Tree</span></i> <span style="font-family: Arial;">thus represents a signal moment in the history of the American poem, the
point when true formal procedure &#8220;comes inside.&#8221; The poem itself is raucous
&amp; witty, perhaps the high point of the Projectivist tradition, which is so
often accused of being ponderous, as just fun. Kelly of course is moving quite
far from some of his masters &#8211; Olson &amp; Blackburn &#8211; in utilizing measure
rather than speech as his modeling principle for language, but that is
precisely what he takes from Zukofsky &amp; Duncan. That push-pull aspect of
the <span class="GramE">Projectivist<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">&nbsp;
</span>tendency</span>, which has never been fully explored critically, is
nowhere more clear than in Kelly, and almost never to greater purpose than in this
poem.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial;">When I would begin <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ketjak</i> seven years after the publication
of this book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Axon Dendron Tree </i>was
one of the works that gave my own project its sense of permission &amp;
possibility. <span class="GramE">Would that every poet had the opportunity to
read Robert Kelly&#8217;s long, thin book.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">* <a href="http://www.abebooks.com/">www.abebooks.com</a> actually lists seven
copies available through used &amp; rare book dealers, ranging in price from
$30 to $275 (for a copy signed to Joel Oppenheimer).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10.0pt;">** At 48,
Mac Low had published just four books. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-weight: bold;">MEMOIRS &amp; COLLABORATIONS</span><br /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Leningrad-American-Writers-Soviet-Union/dp/1562790056">Leningrad</a><br /><a href="http://www.thegrandpiano.org/">The Grand Piano</a><br /><a href="https://www.saltpublishing.com/products/under-albany-9781844710515">Under Albany</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">CRITICISM</span><br /><a href="http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/0937804207/the-new-sentence.aspx">The New Sentence</a><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">ANTHOLOGY</span><br /><a href="https://secure.touchnet.com/C22921_ustores/web/classic/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=327&SINGLESTORE=true">In The American Tree</a><br /><br /><br /><br />
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<br /><img alt="" src="file%3A///Users/Lynn/Desktop/silliman2a.jpg" / /><img alt="" src="file%3A///Users/Lynn/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.png" / /><span style="color: #990000; font-weight: bold;">RON SILLIMAN</span> has written and edited 40 books, and had his poetry and criticism translated into 16 languages. Silliman was a 2012 Kelly Writers House Fellow, the 2010 recipient of the Levinson Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a 2003 Literary Fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2002 Fellow of the Pennsylvania Arts Council, and a 1998 Pew Fellow in the Arts. Silliman has a plaque in the walk dedicated to poetry in his home town of Berkeley and a sculpture in the Transit Center of Bury, Lancaster, a part of the Irwell Sculpture Trail. He lives in Chester County, Pennsylvania and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />(c) 2002-2019 by Ron Silliman.
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