In the past week, I’ve read
on various discussion lists that nobody reads blogs but other bloggers. I’ve
also read that bloggers “control” poetry. I’ve seen an article that quotes incoming
Guggenheim executive Edward Hirsch calling language poetry a “cult,” & read
another listserv message suggesting that there were far too many avant-garde or
experimental poets – an estimate of 10,000 was offered. There does seem to be a
diversity of opinion.
The fear of an Other is an interesting, if sometimes dangerous, phenomenon.
Denial of its existence and/or importance is really only the flip side of the
paranoid nightmare that It, whatever It may be, has
overrun & secretly governs the world. Need I suggest that the truth is
probably somewhere in between?
One of the values of
blogging for poets is that it can deepen the degree of critical thinking poets
themselves do, more so I suspect than the scatter of listserv discussions. If
there is a bias hidden in the blogging form, it’s toward poets who think
critically, but that by no means ensures that said poets will be post-avant,
let alone any particular flavor thereof. It also suggests that there is a role
for critical thinking & writing outside of the received forms of the
academy – & I am convinced that this is all to the better as well.
If there is a potential for
post-avant poetry in raising the bar of critical thinking, it might be to help
address the question that is rather unspoken in that wildly overdone estimate
of 10,000 experimentalists: how, as the post-avant heritage expands to yet
another generation, are those poets going to create the necessary sense of
shape to differentiate between all these young, interesting poets? If the New Americans
broke uneasily (& somewhat too artificially) into their various clusters of
NY School, Projectivism, Beat & SF renaissance – the latter is almost
entirely a fiction – when there were only a hundred or so poets practicing in
the Pound/Williams tradition in the 1950s, how many such tendencies are really
just waiting to (a) get their act together and/or (b) be recognized as such?
That problem of “shape” or differentiation is I think – I know I’ve said this
before, I know I’ll say it again – the primary critical issue facing younger
poets in 2003. The squabble among Canadian poets between those interested in
the use of forms & those more interested in, say, a politicized version of
the NY school is at the least a sign of life. I’m in favor of both sides of
that debate. As I am heartened every time chris
cheek complains that some version of post-avant history is too book & page
oriented, even though I’m certain I must be part of that problem.
Another value I’d hadn’t
anticipated from blogging is the simple verification effect of being able to
register how many readers come to one’s site. Ten thousand visitors to this
blog in just four months should answer any fear I might have that Ed Hirsch is
correct in his assessment of my work, or even the idea that it’s simply an
elite practice, too arcane for many.* Currently, this blog averages slightly
over 130 readers per day. Yesterday saw 198 visitors to this blog, the most
ever – that the average number of readers can continue to expand in the face of
the explosion of poetry blogs makes me realize just how much we need to rethink
the idea of the post-avant audience. It’s larger than we imagine.
But of greatest value to me
are all the other blogs that are now focusing on poetry, poetics & closely
related literary concerns. Not only are the numbers increasing, so is the
diversity – aesthetically & otherwise. Below is the list of the literary
blogs that I currently check at least once or twice per week. One thing I’ve
definitely noted among these blogs is the presence of several people who might
be characterized as either New York School, gen XXXVII or as post-NY School
(there being different ways of looking at this), a tendency previously imagined
by some folks as allergic to critical thinking. Guess again. This may be the most
significant theoretical development that has come out of blogging to date &
it will be interesting to see how it evolves.
The list below consists of
37 bloggers, maybe 28 of which are less than six months old. “The creation of new
forms as additions to nature,” as William Carlos Williams wrote. There is a
group blog, an audioblog & even a blog that
denies its own blogitude.
Since “abortive” blogs are
also a part of the phenomenon, I’ve only included sites that have updated since
the beginning of this year with the notable exception of Camille Roy’s site, Ich Bin Ein Iraqi,
which uses the blog form for a piece on the subject of her Iraqi childhood. It
may be the first instance of serious blog literature – as distinct from literature
merely published in a blog – & absolutely needs to be read.
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Cahiers de
Cory (Josh Corey)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Chaxblog (Charles Alexander – the background color
really does change as you read)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Eeksy Peeksy (Malcolm
Davidson)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>for
the Health of it (Tom Bell)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Free Space
Comix (Brian Kim Stefans, one of the first bloggers)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>HG Poetics
(Henry Gould)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Hypertext
Kitchen (Blog of Eastgate, the hypertext software
folks)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Ich Bin Ein Iraqi (Camille
Roy)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Ineluctable
Maps (Anastios ??)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>jill/txt (Jill Walker)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Jonathan
Mayhew’s Blog (His list of the best sax players includes neither Steve Lacy
nor Anthony Braxton?!)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Josh Blog (Josh Kortbein)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Laurable.Com
(One of the first poetry blogs & one of the best – with a focus on
recordings of readings)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Lester’s Flogspot (Patrick Herron’s sock puppet has an attitude)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>lime tree
(K. Silem Mohammad)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Mike
Snider’s Formal Blog (the only new formalist blog I’ve found)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Nether
(Angela Rawlings)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Overlap
(Drew Gardner)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Pantaloons
(Jack Kimball, currently trying to forget everything Joe Brainard ever
remembered)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Pepy’s Diary (The Ur-blogger has risen from the grave –
welcome to 1659/60)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Possum
Pouch (Dale Smith, though he denies it’s a blog, has converted his web
newsletter to…a blog)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>process
documents (Ryan Fitzpatrick’s long poem in progress)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Ptarmigan
(Alan de Niro)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>reading &
writing (Joseph Duemer)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>San Diego
Poetry Guild (a group blog)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>SpokenWORD (Komninos Zervos’ Australian audioblog)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Squish
(Katherine Parrish)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>texturl
(Brandon Barr)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>The Tijuana Bible of
Poetics (Heriberto Yepez, who also has a poetry blog in Spanish)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>The Year
of Living Musically (Joseph Zitt, poet, musician
& webmaster of the long-running John Cage listserv, Silence)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Ululations
(Nada Gordon)
<![if !supportLists]>§
<![endif]>Wine
Poetics (Eileen Tabios)
My own blog would make 38
& I’m sure that I’m missing some. I’m finding that the ones I learn the
most from are not necessarily those that may appear closest to my own
aesthetics – in addition to Camille Roy, Jonathan Mayhew, Heriberto Yepez &
Nada Gordon have all kept me awake at night, rethinking my assumptions about
the world.
That’s the point, isn’t it?
* I’m a
subscriber to the theory that the only people who find langpo “difficult” or
“obscure” are a small set of people who have become developmentally challenged
through graduate school.
