Chekhov’s Mistess

Marginalia: What I’m not Reading

A casual skim around these pages the last week or so will tell you that allergies currently rule my world (along with the Sun King of course). Luckily for me, the blooming trees are the culprit behind my congested nose and swollen eyes, so my misery will disappear as quick as it was violent.

For now, to satisfy my compulsion to write something here, the best I can offer is what I’m not managing to read. So, let’s see. I’m not reading Break, Blow, Burn. Actually I was stuck on the Herbert for a few days anyway, even though were just talking a few pages, because I just didn’t like the poems so the commentary couldn’t save them. I’ve been mildly disappointed with the book so far, mostly out of musing over why Ms. Paglia chose the pieces that she did and why it’s okay to just tell the story of a poem, merely to put it into prose, which instead of making a poem more interesting, does little more than change it’s form. I’ll write more on this when I finish the book, but as I said, I’m not reading. The literary journal Columbia features an interview of Ms. Paglia in issue #39. She comes off much more thoughtful in that interview than in some I’ve seen recently and besides being outspoken she seems to be struggling with old school new school issues so it seems hard to pin her opinions down in one interview.

I’ve not been reading the same Milosz poem over and over again, never making it until the end. “Songs of Adrain Zielinski.” It’s not the poem, it’s me, I mean it’s only five pages of verse and I can’t seem to finish it as I squint through my stinging itchy eyeballs – it doesn’t help that it’s one of my bedside books where there always exists a compulsion to close my weary lids. I’ve also not been reading Frank Bidart’s book, “Music like Dirt,” which is not as good, in my humble opinion as Desire, but mostly because I’m enamored with the long, erudite (that’s not a good description for a poem!), mysterious, mythical, “Second Hour of the Night” and “Third Hour of the Night,” (link is an excerpt) which appeared in Poetry Magazine last year. In that issue of Poetry, Bidart’s poem was the only one that ran, taking up half the issue. The next issue included letters to the editor, some complaining about having only one poem, and one of course, that they didn’t like, and others praising the editors for being so bold.

And speaking of Poetry Magazine, Daisy Fried has given us a rundown on poetry oriented sites on the Web, including some blogs. I did read that because squinting in front of a computer screen isn’t as bad as squinting at a book because you (I) feel as though I owe the book something and the computer owes me. It must because I spend so much time with it. Ms. Fried’s article reads something like a long, polished blog post, but I’ve noticed more of that lately, that proper articles seem more like blog posts. Maybe it’s always been that way and I just didn’t have anything to compare before.

I recently picked up a copy of Seamus Heaney’s, Redress of Poetry, suggested by Norma at atalantasapples, but I haven’t started it yet. Contemporary Poetry Review has a review of Heaney’s selected prose (Finders Keepers). The reviewer, Carol Bere, doesn’t actually pass judgment on the book, so I’m left to believe that if you like Heaney, you’ll like the book. Camille Paglia, I know, does not like Heaney, so I would not suggest she read it.

And of course, there’s Don Quixote. It has been a bit slow at 400 Windmills lately, but we’ve had some nice commentary on Edith Grossman’s recent lecture at Fordham. Funnily, two of our contributors were at the lecture, unbeknownst (isn’t that a cumbersome word) to one another. My own reading has been slow, I’ve complained about what I didn’t like about the book, but I still find it pretty rich, even though I spend most of my time reading it with one eye covered, the other dripping, and dropping the book from convulsive sneezes. Are you thinking get some medicine already? – well I am taking Claritin, but our insurance won’t pay for prescription allergy medicine since Claritin is available over the counter. Hmph.

Read widely, think well, and write often

comments

Many thanks for posting the excerpt of the Bidart poem, very compelling, and now I want to read the entire poem. (It looks like it was the October 2004 issue of Poetry.)

What I’ve recently bought and have barely opened are Mark Doty’s “School of the Arts”, Jack Gilbert’s “Refusing Heaven” (it’s been about 10 years since “The Great Fires") and Ammons’ last collection, “Bosh and Flapdoodle.”

As if these were not enough (along with others too numerous to mention and too revealing of serious biblioprofligacy) there is now also (for a seasonally afflicted sneezer, you’re managing some concentrated posting) the Fried essay on poetry sites on the web, wanting to be read.

No wonder Don Quixote is still sitting in the meadow with his sorrowful countenance.

    – Norma (05/03  at  11:15 PM)

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About this Post

• Posted by: Bud Parr
• Date: May 03, 2005
• Filed Under:
  Song of Myself: Diary

• Comments:1
• Links to this Post: Technorati

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