30.9.03
WRITING IS
I write too much. I can write forever. To me the mistery is why sometimes I don't write or I can't. A mistery why haven't been writing at least a sentence or two (like these) in English. Not a mistery, a question: why not write?
Writing waits. Writing spies.
I learned a second language, a second way to make mistakes, so I could write more. Why stop? Writing knows.
I just know a few words of this language, but I keep combining them all the ways I can.
I, for example, know and use a lot the word I. And the word "ways".
Writing is also a word I use a lot. A lot too I use.
Writing keeps.
Writing asks.
Writing is a remnant of something else. Maybe a first tongue, a second body, a third state.
Writing remembers well or forgets beneath.
Writing is either untrue or endless. It can be use for fiction or for lies. Writing writes.
Writing is not a door. Open or closed are not 1 or 2.
Writing is represented by letters. Letters appear in numbers.
Writing descends in clouds
of quotes. Writing has an East.
Writing times.
Writing waits. Writing spies.
It repeats.
Paragraphs.
Writing is not mechanical nor a flux. Writing goes and comes.
Writing reappears in a different place or a future now.
Writing is another here.
I write too much. I can write forever. To me the mistery is why sometimes I don't write or I can't. A mistery why haven't been writing at least a sentence or two (like these) in English. Not a mistery, a question: why not write?
Writing waits. Writing spies.
I learned a second language, a second way to make mistakes, so I could write more. Why stop? Writing knows.
I just know a few words of this language, but I keep combining them all the ways I can.
I, for example, know and use a lot the word I. And the word "ways".
Writing is also a word I use a lot. A lot too I use.
Writing keeps.
Writing asks.
Writing is a remnant of something else. Maybe a first tongue, a second body, a third state.
Writing remembers well or forgets beneath.
Writing is either untrue or endless. It can be use for fiction or for lies. Writing writes.
Writing is not a door. Open or closed are not 1 or 2.
Writing is represented by letters. Letters appear in numbers.
Writing descends in clouds
of quotes. Writing has an East.
Writing times.
Writing waits. Writing spies.
It repeats.
Paragraphs.
Writing is not mechanical nor a flux. Writing goes and comes.
Writing reappears in a different place or a future now.
Writing is another here.
16.9.03
ON THE JOAN HOULIHAN THING
1. A very intelligent idiot.
2. The past all of us once had—before learning to read.
3. Prose is not what she thinks it is.
4. Read your national poetry as if you were a foreigner.
5. Maybe not a 'music' anymore.
6. She doesn't get it. She doesn't have to.
7. E = N = V = Y
8. Dear, primitive means Complex. Try again.
9. She is plain nasty // She defends nice poetry.
10. "Not in a theory of what poetry should be". She theorizes in a long essay divided into 7 different parts.
11. Easy targets :: Easy attacks.
12. The 'Post-post' 'joke'. Heard that before. In general, you-re pretty previous.
13. No doubt. You've made it to the poetry history books. Sorry for that.
14. Everything changes, except the avantgarde. Paul Valery said it. You're not Paul Valery.
15. Haven't read Fence. Now I want to read it.
16. You're too readable. Don't try so hard. Nothing inside.
17. The need for coherence appears to be basic. Perhaps even neurological.
18. There's a clear link between poetry and therapy. Try it.
19. Thank you I now understand Language Poetry better. The need for it. The context. It's the context, stupid.
19. Do you really like that kind of poety? Or that-kind-of-poetry you call meaningful helps you not to like other kind of poetry?
20. Capitalism does exist.
PS.
"Why not? How does this version differ from the original? Only in its words. And since the words don't count, since they don't have to be best, better, bad or in any way related to any potential meaning, my poem is as "good" as the original. In fact, I would argue my poem is the original. It is exactly the same poem, albeit with different words—but neither set of words makes any difference to the meaning" (Joan Houlihan).
"If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise" (William Blake).
1. A very intelligent idiot.
2. The past all of us once had—before learning to read.
3. Prose is not what she thinks it is.
4. Read your national poetry as if you were a foreigner.
5. Maybe not a 'music' anymore.
6. She doesn't get it. She doesn't have to.
7. E = N = V = Y
8. Dear, primitive means Complex. Try again.
9. She is plain nasty // She defends nice poetry.
10. "Not in a theory of what poetry should be". She theorizes in a long essay divided into 7 different parts.
11. Easy targets :: Easy attacks.
12. The 'Post-post' 'joke'. Heard that before. In general, you-re pretty previous.
13. No doubt. You've made it to the poetry history books. Sorry for that.
14. Everything changes, except the avantgarde. Paul Valery said it. You're not Paul Valery.
15. Haven't read Fence. Now I want to read it.
16. You're too readable. Don't try so hard. Nothing inside.
17. The need for coherence appears to be basic. Perhaps even neurological.
18. There's a clear link between poetry and therapy. Try it.
19. Thank you I now understand Language Poetry better. The need for it. The context. It's the context, stupid.
19. Do you really like that kind of poety? Or that-kind-of-poetry you call meaningful helps you not to like other kind of poetry?
20. Capitalism does exist.
PS.
"Why not? How does this version differ from the original? Only in its words. And since the words don't count, since they don't have to be best, better, bad or in any way related to any potential meaning, my poem is as "good" as the original. In fact, I would argue my poem is the original. It is exactly the same poem, albeit with different words—but neither set of words makes any difference to the meaning" (Joan Houlihan).
"If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise" (William Blake).
14.9.03
VIVA ZAPATA
I told you. Somebody got into this page looking for "Mexican Women, Sexy from Chiapas".
I told you. Somebody got into this page looking for "Mexican Women, Sexy from Chiapas".
3.9.03
PS
Would I take books to the island or magazine suscriptions?
Would I take books to the island or magazine suscriptions?
2.9.03
MY SPANISH TOP TEN LIST
1. Poesía, by José Juan Tablada. The Mexican avant-agard pioneer, using calligraphy, and other visual devices simultaneously to Apollinaire. And appropriating haiku, ethnopoetic practices, sound poetry very early in the 20th Century.
2. Ficciones by J. L. Borges (Argentina). I am under the impression Borges gets misread in the U.S., and some times in Latin America. What did Borges accomplished? Great beautiful prose style, great stories and visions (which helped inspired lots of theory. What do Foucault’s The Order of Things and Simulacra and Simulation by Baudrillard have in common? The both begin quoting Borges. From Genette to Piglia, Borges influenced many, writing both by his use of real and parodic neobarroque or classic modern style and by his experimental post-modern techniques. Borges = self-consciousness in almost every way possible, including the destruction of borders between genres: short story + philosophy + review + essay + translation + apocrypha + etcetera.
3. Obras Completas, by Pablo Palacio (Ecuador). Especially his two experimental novels (Débora, 1927, and Vida del ahorcado. Novela subjetiva, 1932). A forerunner of anti-absorbent fiction.
4. Poemas and Antipoemas (1954) by Nicanor Parra (Chile). A critique of the romantic model of poetry, using comedy and anti-Neruda attitude. Parra opened the way in Latin America to transcend the idea of the lyrical and solemn I.
5. Not Octavio Paz’ poetry but his prose, from his essays to the Laberinto de la soledad on Mexican identity, reimagined by him. Even though I don’t agree with his ideas on that, he used poetry not to explain other poets or literature, but to explain History and Culture.
6. Poeta en Nueva York, by Federico García Lorca. No comments needed. And to tell you the truth I think Lorca's influence on Spicer, Rothenberg, Ginsberg, Duncan, Baraka, Bly or Blackburn, and adding the Duende conference included in one of D. Allen's volumes maybe made him bigger than in Spanish. Certainly the Duende piece had more relevance in the U.S. poetry/poetics discussions.
7. Poesía completa, Oliverio Girondo. Another early avant-gardist, writing with wording. Discovering new emotions through new sounds.
8. Rayuela by Julio Cortázar. This 1968 novel even though his retro-surrealistic resonance, was also a meditation on anti/closure, the role of the reader, open text, theory, etc. A novel on everything, a novel on estructure.
9. Barroco, by Severo Sarduy. His book on Baroque in Latin American Culture and literature in general. A reflection on artifice, which continued Borges and Lezama Lima ideas and techniques. Sarduy’s experimental novels are also a must on the island of solipsistic readers.
10. Xerox copies of Alejandra Pizarnik La condesa sangrienta nouvelle, Cesar Vallejo’s poems, and pages from Onetti’s, Rulfo’s and Sábato’s novels. And a good collection of manifestos from Brazil.
1. Poesía, by José Juan Tablada. The Mexican avant-agard pioneer, using calligraphy, and other visual devices simultaneously to Apollinaire. And appropriating haiku, ethnopoetic practices, sound poetry very early in the 20th Century.
2. Ficciones by J. L. Borges (Argentina). I am under the impression Borges gets misread in the U.S., and some times in Latin America. What did Borges accomplished? Great beautiful prose style, great stories and visions (which helped inspired lots of theory. What do Foucault’s The Order of Things and Simulacra and Simulation by Baudrillard have in common? The both begin quoting Borges. From Genette to Piglia, Borges influenced many, writing both by his use of real and parodic neobarroque or classic modern style and by his experimental post-modern techniques. Borges = self-consciousness in almost every way possible, including the destruction of borders between genres: short story + philosophy + review + essay + translation + apocrypha + etcetera.
3. Obras Completas, by Pablo Palacio (Ecuador). Especially his two experimental novels (Débora, 1927, and Vida del ahorcado. Novela subjetiva, 1932). A forerunner of anti-absorbent fiction.
4. Poemas and Antipoemas (1954) by Nicanor Parra (Chile). A critique of the romantic model of poetry, using comedy and anti-Neruda attitude. Parra opened the way in Latin America to transcend the idea of the lyrical and solemn I.
5. Not Octavio Paz’ poetry but his prose, from his essays to the Laberinto de la soledad on Mexican identity, reimagined by him. Even though I don’t agree with his ideas on that, he used poetry not to explain other poets or literature, but to explain History and Culture.
6. Poeta en Nueva York, by Federico García Lorca. No comments needed. And to tell you the truth I think Lorca's influence on Spicer, Rothenberg, Ginsberg, Duncan, Baraka, Bly or Blackburn, and adding the Duende conference included in one of D. Allen's volumes maybe made him bigger than in Spanish. Certainly the Duende piece had more relevance in the U.S. poetry/poetics discussions.
7. Poesía completa, Oliverio Girondo. Another early avant-gardist, writing with wording. Discovering new emotions through new sounds.
8. Rayuela by Julio Cortázar. This 1968 novel even though his retro-surrealistic resonance, was also a meditation on anti/closure, the role of the reader, open text, theory, etc. A novel on everything, a novel on estructure.
9. Barroco, by Severo Sarduy. His book on Baroque in Latin American Culture and literature in general. A reflection on artifice, which continued Borges and Lezama Lima ideas and techniques. Sarduy’s experimental novels are also a must on the island of solipsistic readers.
10. Xerox copies of Alejandra Pizarnik La condesa sangrienta nouvelle, Cesar Vallejo’s poems, and pages from Onetti’s, Rulfo’s and Sábato’s novels. And a good collection of manifestos from Brazil.
MY (AMERICAN) DESERT ISLAND TOP TEN LIST
1. Not Tender Buttons but my very red edition of What are Masterpieces?, which includes Gertrude Stein’s “Composition as Explanation”, “What are Masters-Pieces and Why Are there so few of them”, “Identity A Poem” and other key pieces.
2. Hannibal Lecter, My Father. Kathy Acker’s early writings.
3. A Poetics, by Charles Bernstein. I would not only bring this book to the desert island, but I would donate it to the local Library there. And I would keep for myself the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book.
4. Not My Life, but The Beginner. Shorter and nicer. My ears come every time I hear that poem.
5. Technicians of the Sacred, by Jerome Rothenberg. Or any of his anthologies.
6. Either Silence or A Year from Monday by Cage. Reading Cage's "Lectures on..." from these this book I would also think of David Antin talk-poems. Essential.
7. The New American Poetics, D. Allen volume. Poetics = A poem including thinking.
8. Women Stone, Simon Ortiz.
9. The Collected Books of Jack Spicer. Including Robin Blaser's excellente essay.
10. The Tablets by Armand Schwerner.
P.S. But because I’m a Mexican I would smuggle some Xerox copies from ABC of Reading by Pound (Not the Cantos, which make me sleep), Ginsberg’s Indian Journals, Burroughs late introduction to Queer, and most of Anarchism is not enough by Laura Riding.
And by no reason I would forget to bring my Complete poetry by Hart Crane in case this reality show reading island has no toilet paper.
1. Not Tender Buttons but my very red edition of What are Masterpieces?, which includes Gertrude Stein’s “Composition as Explanation”, “What are Masters-Pieces and Why Are there so few of them”, “Identity A Poem” and other key pieces.
2. Hannibal Lecter, My Father. Kathy Acker’s early writings.
3. A Poetics, by Charles Bernstein. I would not only bring this book to the desert island, but I would donate it to the local Library there. And I would keep for myself the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Book.
4. Not My Life, but The Beginner. Shorter and nicer. My ears come every time I hear that poem.
5. Technicians of the Sacred, by Jerome Rothenberg. Or any of his anthologies.
6. Either Silence or A Year from Monday by Cage. Reading Cage's "Lectures on..." from these this book I would also think of David Antin talk-poems. Essential.
7. The New American Poetics, D. Allen volume. Poetics = A poem including thinking.
8. Women Stone, Simon Ortiz.
9. The Collected Books of Jack Spicer. Including Robin Blaser's excellente essay.
10. The Tablets by Armand Schwerner.
P.S. But because I’m a Mexican I would smuggle some Xerox copies from ABC of Reading by Pound (Not the Cantos, which make me sleep), Ginsberg’s Indian Journals, Burroughs late introduction to Queer, and most of Anarchism is not enough by Laura Riding.
And by no reason I would forget to bring my Complete poetry by Hart Crane in case this reality show reading island has no toilet paper.
