I believe any Young Poet should read his poem "Challenges to Young Poets" that is found in this book. It has inspired me and helped my writing. I espe...moreI believe any Young Poet should read his poem "Challenges to Young Poets" that is found in this book. It has inspired me and helped my writing. I especially love his advise to "Think subjectively, write objectively" and "Think long thoughts in short sentences." Some of his advise makes me laugh, but I still find these amusing parts important, such as "Don't contemplate your navel in poetry and think the rest of the world is going to think it's important," and "Don't be so open-minded your brains fall out."
Also, I absolutely love his poem "The Great Chinese Dragon". I especially love how he tells about "the great Chinese dragon passing thru the Golden Gate spouting streams of water like a string of fireboats then broke loose somewhere near the China Camp gulped down a hundred Chinese seamen and forthwith ate up all the shrimp in San Francisco Bay" How imaginative! But he takes this idea further and uses it to explain why "the great Chinese dragon was therefore forever after confined in a Chinatown basement."
Perhaps you have to be familiar with Chinese New Year parades, but basically, there is this giant 201 foot-long dragon that is for all intents and purposes stuffed in an old Chinatown basement, where it sits quietly picking up dust until that fateful day of Chinese New Year, when he can "be seen creeping out of an Adler Alley cellar like a worm out of a hole."
So there is this giant paper dragon that stretches for blocks that takes 100 men and women to carry it, but Lawrence Ferlinghetti couldn't leave it at a description such as that. No, instead he anthropomorphizes this dragon by saying it "has eaten a hundred humans and their legs pop out of his underside and are his walking legs which are not mentioned in the official printed program." His humor, sarcasm, and imagination make Lawrence Ferlinghetti's poems so captivating.
All in all, if you ever find yourself wandering around San Francisco, while captivated by the city's magnificent splendor, pick up this book and become inspired. Perhaps these poems will open up your mind, allowing you to see the City in a whole new way.(less)
I saw Carl Phillips read in Milwaukee in, I believe, 04, and I remember greatly liking his poems, so much so that I purchased this book, The Rest of L...moreI saw Carl Phillips read in Milwaukee in, I believe, 04, and I remember greatly liking his poems, so much so that I purchased this book, The Rest of Love. I chose this book in particular because I really admired the poem "White Dog", which is found in this book. "white Dog" is about Phillips painful experience following the death of his beloved dog. There is one part of the poem I particularly like:
"I know, released, she won't come back. This is different from letting what,
already, we count as lost go. It is nothing like that."
I love the comparison to the word 'release' and 'letting go'. The difference is in the empowerment in the act of releasing. It is time to go. I release you. I know you won't come back, and I choose to accept that.
The poems in this book are about love in some way, but not the magical type of love, which is fulfilling and rewarding. This type of love is unfulfilled and unrewarded. I sense some rejection and perhaps unrequited love in his poems. It's interesting that the first poem "Custom" says this about love: "about love, a sudden decision not to, to pretend instead to a kind / of choice." This poem like many of the poems of this book is very enigmatic. To me, the poem is about a dramatic ending of a relationship, which was reminiscent of the brutal endings of relationships of the past. Thus, it seems only natural to decide not to love anymore, but I like how Phillips points out that when we do this, we "pretend instead to a kind of choice," special emphasis on 'pretend' because love is not a choice.
Phillips also speaks frequently of God and spirituality, sometimes poking fun of certain avid conceptualizations of God, sometimes questioning the truth behind God and the soul. I feel like Phillips may have de-converted (what's the opposite of convert?) from Christianity. It's as though he feels like God isn't there. I don't know how I feel about that, because for me, God is always there in the trees, in nature, in ourselves. Thus, there are a few poems that I disagree with Phillips' philosophy, which seems so depressing and nihilistic at times.
What's neat about Phillips, because you don't really expect it is how Allen Ginsberg he is about guys. Yes, Phillips is a gay poet, and he speaks of his relations with men freely. Phillips is sometimes erotic, with words like ass, hole, tear, leather, strap, shirtless, but I feel like the poems aren't meant to turn you on because these sexual passages feel lacking in passion. It's more like a tenderness, a careful caressing kind of sex. It's weird. I can't feel passion, but he writes of straps and whips. It's slightly uncanny.
My favorite poem of the book is "Fervor". Perhaps this explains my feeling above. Fervor is passion by definition, but when he writes about the guy removing his shirt, his shoes, opening his pants and him not wearing anything underneath, Phillips writes:
"I did what I do--
pretended to be a fallen gate, its hinges gone"
So this is supposed to be fervor? To fall down like a rusted old gate? For me, I feel like there is something missing. Like love isn't there, but why? Maybe I'm just reading too much of my self into it. Who knows? What I do know is I love that poem, because I feel so much emotion in it. Like, sadness, and desire, and emptiness, and abandonment, and nostalgia, and wanting more.
All in all, many of the poems do not resonate with me, hence the 3 stars. Some of the syntax feels strange, and some of the lines of the poem feel too random. For example, in the poem "In Love" it goes:
"Here, when the light deepens, when they say The dark is taking hold,
and mean a gradualness like that of discipline where, once abandon figured,
the men who--all day, a month now-- have worked the orchard leave the orchard behind;
they have left already."
What does that mean? I tried to understand it, but it's too much for me. I wish there was a place online where Phillips explains his poems. I feel like a deeper understanding of the poems' backgrounds would better serve the reader. In the meantime, we go without.
Finally, I want to express how much I love the title, The Rest of Love. We know what Love is, but what about the rest of it? What about the deep, dark, terrifying aspects of it? Or perhaps, it means a rest from love. There is love, and it weakens us, and so we have to take a break from it and find ourselves, and understand what it is that got us loving, so that we can better strengthen ourselves for the future, and figure out how to keep love from causing so much pain.(less)
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