Pitch of Poetry by Charles Bernstein

I love poetry, so I had to get the book. I started reading and although my english is really good, I couldn't quiet follow the reasoning of the author. The concepts were too strange, too far away from what I knew. But I finished the book, underlining large portions and after a day of rest I started rereading the book. And yes I am understanding more. I mark new thoughts. And I fell for the concepts about plagiarism, working on the basis of an older text, a preexisting text and taking away thoughts, words, and stealing from the source text... Charles Bernstein edited during 4 years with Bruce Andrews the L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E magazine.
The main slant is on making meaning, not taking for granted anything from vocabulary to process, program, nor subject matter. The poetry of the magazine was in stark contrast to the poetry of the time. It included critical writing by the poets of the magazine. Some names of poets I knew because I have participated in the MODPO course by Al Filreis twice, fascinated as I was by it and will follow it again... I learned that process, mood and inconsistency is more important than stylistic uniformity. The book also addresses translation and it problematic aspects. I have translated quite a lot from English to Dutch, from Dutch to English (not as much).
It is clear from the text that the civil right's movement had a deep impact. I was also happy to find a reference to George Lakoff and his theory of frames and reframing and oppositional poetry. I know language is not neutral...
If you're interested in poetry and the politics, the evolving views the do read this book.

AFRICA 39

It is great to get a book like this as a present: new writing from Africa South of the Sahara. The writing is very diverse notwithstanding that certain themes are touched upon more often than others. Hunger, the struggle for survival, violence, lust and sex it is all present in this very well chosen overview of new writings. Yet also the beginning of the Nigerian civil war is dealt with and the complicated relationships or enmities between the different tribes: Hausas are targeting Igbos but the protagonist  of one of the stories has a Yoruba father...
Quote: It wasn't Lagos she longed for, the splendour, the sensational, the sense of being wealthy - but the sense of self surrendered to the senselessness of history, the narrowness and naïvety of her former individuality...
Extract from TAIYE SELASI : from Ghana must go.
A few concepts from the same story: Olu : all is quiet. Taiwo : the tension, a light tugging sensation. But no sense of danger, no cause for alarm. Kehinde : the absence and Sadie : fluttering butterflies, a new thing this restlessness, this looking for something, not finding it.
Of course by quoting only one of the authors I don't do the book justice. Read it, you find yourself all over the world and you will have a lot of food for thought...

On the road again...

Sometimes beauty just has to be shared with a friend. So we took off with DoggyDog and saw the most spectacular views. The first night was after we had thoroughly visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon. And yes it dutifully impressed my friend. The stupid bad thing is that something is not working with my pictures... Thus you have to imagine the deep canyons for miles and miles, changing color in the changing light. From one spot one can actually see how big the Colorado river is and then imagine the slow work it did since prehistoric times... We slept in Kikotsmovi after a long drive through the darkest night. The bed was excellent and the next morning the blue corn pancakes were just delicious and gave sustenance for quite a long time. From the Hopi we drove to Flagstaff, saw pretty views again: red rock country and we saw snow on the St Francisco Peaks. So I expected it to be cold on the night of Halloween. But first things first: the Starlight Bookshop in Flagstaff is one of my favorite bookshops. And yes, I again a found some great stuff: Jack Karouac with Mexico City Blues with 242 Choruses. I expect to be surprised by rhythms and spontaneous writing. Allen Ginsberg says about the book: a spontaneous bop prosody and original classic literature.
The second book is by Gary Snyder: Mountains and Rivers Without End. That book was actually presented in the Starlight bookshop. The owner seems to know most of the poets and writers personally and I would not be astonished if he were a poet in his own right.
And then there was also In the Palm of Your Hand: The poet's Portable Workshop by Steve Kowit. I am intrigued by it. I could have bought more books but I travel light and there is hardly space in my small carry on suitcase.

And of course we took a bath in the Halloween festivities on the market square... Admired costumes and tried to figure out what Halloween is all about when autumn fades and winter announces itself on the Peaks and the parked cars all frosted over...
Now I am back home, a cozy bed, for DoggyDog and me. And notwithstanding all the unfinished stuff in my old gas station, a really comfortable place for me, if it ever comes all together.

Cormac Mc Carthy. The road- All the pretty horses, Child of God and Outer dark

I had given The Road, a post apocalyptic novel by Cormac Mc Carthy to a friend of mine. When he gave it it back he said : it is sooo dark... After climate change a father and son walk through scorched America. The only thing moving are the ashes and the people looking for food. Violence and unerring humanity. It is shocking yet beautiful. So off to the bookshop I went and got myself All the pretty horses the first book of the Border trilogy. I am floored by the language, the precise terms for types of soil, potholes and other standing water, but also life and death, love and notwithstanding pain some men live by their own rather masculine honor code. He tells a grand and epic story, expressed in even grander landscapes reflecting the mental states of some of the protagonists. Pain, love, loyalty. My love of language made me circle the words I had never read before... quiet a few gems are to be found on each page. And yes the story of young men, kids almost and the trials and tribulations of first love... In a way this is a unique coming of age novel. I had read before Child of God, for me this was the hardest to read: the degradation, the grotesque, killing and preying upon people in normal situations like chance encounters in the woods, in stores. The images of East Tennessee show the depressed area and the de-posessed... Yet I go on reading mesmerized by the dignity of some, the touch of humor and the strength and mesmerizing beauty of his language. Mc Carthy shows the worst of a human being yet elicits compassion.

Just one sentence: The lamp in the floor gutters in the wind and the wind moans in th flue.

Outer dark begins with the birth of a child from the incestuous union between a brother and a sister. The brother takes away the child and she won't stop looking for it in the wild Appalachian lands around the turn of the century. Moving and chilling is this wandering to find a child. three strangers turn it into an apocalypse... It is quiet a read bringing redemption n a strange way as a kind of parable.

Train Dreams- Denis Johnson

Seldom I do read books in translation if the original is written in a language I know. Yet when a friends passes me a book he enjoyed, I'll make the effort and Denis Johnson's book was well worth the effort. It is barely a hundred pages but carries a wealth of metaphor, insight in the hard life in Idaho as exemplified by the main character Robert Grainier. He lives through disaster and the hardships of the American West at the beginning of the twentieths century. The novel exemplifies how personal loss works in a person, how mythical thinking and magic helps and destroys. The main character who starts out as a day laborer is also a prime example of doing what needs to be done. The book was nominated for a Pulitzer prize in 2012. The Dutch translation by Maarten Polman does read well, keeping the sober language of the original. The novel opens with Grainier participating in the killing of a Chinese man who had been accused of stealing... The harshness of those times is immediate and haunting.

Unraveling the spreading cloth of time

Indigenous Thoughts Concerning The Universe

Basically the premise of this book is that the Native American nations knew all along about quantum mechanics and interconnectedness. The Universe is a living entity with which/whom we can interact through ceremony. It is not there externally as an object to be studied, but we are part of its dynamic web. Life is flux and change... and  the subject makes for exiting writing.

The books starts with a quote by Vine Deloria Jr. which I offer here: All the tribes say the universe is just the product of mind... It fits perfectly with the quantum. Indians believe the universe is mind, but they explore the spiritual end of  it, not the physical end.

We are destroying our world by the “uncontrolled fires of excess” writes Lela Northcross Wakely. We need to cleanse and burn away the old underbrush and the ground of our heart will be purified and open for healthier thoughts. Giving thanks is a good practice. It keeps us grounded and open. Do it every day... Kim Shuck writes about the Milky Way containing ethyl formate, the taste of raspberries and black holes which sing in B flat...  This makes me realize how wondrous and strange our world is, where we expect things to be solid, but know that basically they are not...

There are creation stories, personal accounts of life and great poetry. There is connectedness to the land and travel and that all is as it should be. And sometimes we stumble upon a special place. They can be sacred, historic, they can be a migration route of the Hopi with a hurry star on the face of a rock. The book is wise in old words en new words in reinventing the language in poetry and songs.

I must thank MariJo Moore for her own writings and for realizing this important anthology.

You can order the book from MariJo Moore

Website: Marijomoore.com

001-828 545 1365

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I sit on the couch and read

because the couch agrees

to let me sit

to keep its structure

solid together for my sitting

while I fall apart

Genocide of the mind

New native American Writing

This book is a must read for people who want to hear authentic voices reflecting about the contemporary position of Native Americans in the USA. It is still a sad state of affairs, yet it is also a book that will give strength by the examples these authors give in their conduct and their writing. The book is edited by MariJo Moore and has a foreword by Vine Deloria, Jr. Thirty four authors, some I knew and admired already and many authors new to me, writing with a depth and honesty and humor and also with anger. The words are being revolutionized. David Seals message was serious, yet I smiled because of the mastery of the language. Leonard Peltier is mentioned a few times in the book. It was a joy to discover poems by Maurice Kenny, poems I didn’t know. Vine Deloria, Jr reminds us that the villages always are the center of ceremony and that the people living in town live among the representation of the values of the dominant culture. The book offers us a collective memory of these authors. I was moved by the description of the feeling of leading a discontinuous life, the sense of not belonging. I also admire the essay by Paula Gunn Allen. She seems to suggest that openness and honesty will help to explore the similarities and differences in perceiving the world. Lesly Marmon Silko, another favorite author of mine, reminds us that identity is always in flux. Wonderful to see it stated this way. The book consists of five chapters: One: Keeping the home fires burning in urban circles. Two: Young American Indians: The need to reclaim identity. Three: Native Languages: Where will they go from here? Four: Indians as mascots: An issue to be resolved. Five: Who we are, Who we are not: Memories, misconceptions, and modifications.

I do apologize for not mentioning each and every one of the authors. They are discoveries and I’ll watch out for more of their work.

Ben Okri: Songs of Enchantment

Ben Okri's book calling out to me in a secondhand shop fulfilled all the promises it held. Years ago I had read The Famished Road, the book to which Songs of enchantment is a sequel. Azarro still lives in the mythical villages among malevolent forces and powers, corrupting the villagers. The child is still the narrator. Yet the book is not just a next installment, it does take you in a whirlwind of events and once again I lost myself in the dreams and charms, the magic of wandering lights, the sorcery, the transferences all told in an truly enchanting way. The story is driven by the supernatural events yet it does deal also with very earthy and human issues: poverty and power, politics with the party of the rich and the soul eating of the poor turning their followers into ghostlike creatures. I couldn't lay down the book. The words kept haunting me. Okri's language will do that to you with its firework of words that will cast a spell over you, will mesmerize the reader. Do read both books and don't forget to pack them for your desert island stay... The ghosts and spirits evoked may keep you company.

Ben Okri is an eminent and politically astute and aware author. Read every word and then read again between the lines.

Ben Okri, born in 1959, is a Nigerian poet and novelist one of the real strong post-modern African voices.

With the last sentences he comes full circle from the opening paragraph: : Maybe one day we will se the montains ahead of us. Maybe one day we will see the seven mountains of our mysterous destiny. Maybe one day we will see that beyond our chaos there could always be a new sunlight, and serenity.