David Anthony Sam's Blog, page 199
October 13, 2015
Aji Magazine will publish 3 of my poems in its Spring 2016 issue
Aji Magazine will publish 3 of my poems in its Spring 2016 issue. http://www.ajimagazine.com/
October 7, 2015
Faith in the Word
The Art of Description: World into Word by Mark Doty
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
With this collection of thoughts and essays. Mark Doty shows that not only is he a fine poet, he is also a great explicator of poetry and advocate for its craft. He argues effectively for description of the world and the inner experience of it, and the informing of each by the other.
Doty also points to a critical problem with so much current poetry:
“Startling, to go description-hunting and realize that I can thumb through whole books of recent poems with very little evocation of sense perception within them. Why is this the case? I declare myself here on the side of allegiance to the sensible, things as they are, the given, the incompletely knowable, never to get done or get it right or render it whole: ours to say and say. The mightiest of our resources brought to the task, to make the world real.”
There is a loss of faith in the ability of language to be more than solipsistic, and a concomitant loss in the craft of making things sensible in both definitions of the word:
“Now everybody in creation mistrusts language, and half the poems we read make a nod toward the unsayable. What’s to be done? Language won’t do what we wish it would, but we have nothing else—so we have to go forward and behave as if it could do what we wanted (with some faith in the miraculous fact that it does, from time to time, give us a “Song of Myself” or a Tender Buttons, something the world wouldn’t be the same without).
“Perhaps we can inhabit the interesting middle ground that lies between, on the one side, giving up on referentiality altogether, and, on the other, cleaving to an outdated notion that words can be controlled, can say what we mean to say when we wish to make use of them.”
This a book for lovers of beautiful words and the desperate craft of believing that their distillation in unexpected liquors still makes life more alive.
October 1, 2015
Two of my poems are included in the latest BPL issue
Two of my poems are included in the latest BPL issue. https://birdspiledloosely.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/issue-51.pdf
My poem “Ghosts: Paper or Plastic” is included in the Yellowchair Review October “Horror” issue
My poem “Ghosts: Paper or Plastic” is included in the Yellowchair Review October “Horror” issue. http://issuu.com/yellowchairreview/docs/ycrhorrorissue
September 28, 2015
My poetry & that of other poets in Heron Tree now available in a collection
My poetry & that of other poets in Heron Tree now available in a print collection.
September 27, 2015
Another fine collection by Jane Hirshfield
The Beauty: Poems by Jane Hirshfield
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Jane Hirshfield never disappoints—although the poems in the first and last sections were the strongest. The entire collection exudes a Zen influence, using nature and the commonplace to find an emotional and spiritual resignation or reconciliation with the Way of the world.
September 15, 2015
What makes us fully human
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry by Jane Hirshfield
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Jane Hirshfield is not just one of the finest poets writing today, she is also one of the best writers about the craft and art of poetry and its place in our contemporary world. This collection of essays is not just for the student of poetry but for anyone who cares about language and the need for art to make us wholly human.
September 14, 2015
Rust and Moth will publish my poem “Transit”
Rust and Moth will publish my poem “Transit” both online and in their Winter 2015 print edition. http://rustandmoth.com/
September 12, 2015
More than seems
“…good poetry carries broad information within brief speech.” Jane Hirshfield
September 7, 2015
Vine Leaves Literary Journal has accepted my poem “Taconic Orogeny” for publication in its October issue
Vine Leaves Literary Journal has accepted my poem “Taconic Orogeny” for publication in its October issue.
