[Jennifer Liston grew up in Co Galway, Ireland and now lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Her procedural poetry, as presented here, adds significantly to the line of such poetry in modern and postmodern writing — in both her poems and poetics. The idea of the “rescued poem” is indubitably her own, and a further collection of poems as examples will shortly be gathered as a book. (J.R.)]
Scholars and critics too initiate “transpositions.” Even a casual observation can make a familiar poem appear in a new light, for example when Helen Vendler wonders, in her review of Wallace Stevens’s Selected Poems, what we would make of “The Snow Man” if it had been called “Stoicism in a Failed Marriage.” Sometimes such interventions go further, transforming our ideas about not only what a poem means but what it does and even what it is.
In the introduction to Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, José Esteban Muñoz addresses the caretaking relationship between Eileen Myles and James Schuyler as one of anti-antirelational queer kinship.
Gaiutra Bahadur, author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture put Lalbihari Sharma’s Holi Songs of Demerara in my hands. This text was composed in 1916 in a mix of Awadhi and Bhojpuri by an indentured laborer in Guyana. He chronicles life on the plantation, suffering at the hands of the British, and nirgun philosophy — a philosophy that holds the human soul as not separate from the Divine.
The de-versification of Lucretius -- treating it as prose -- is an unintended theme of the most famous contemporary account of Of Things' Nature, Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011). Greenblatt begins The Swerve with an account of his youthful discovery of Lucretius through Martin Ferguson Smith's excellent prose translation. Greenblatt pretty much sticks to citing this prose version throughout his book, despite his nod to Dryden as the best for conveying Lucretius's "ardor" and also noting that he consulted all the translations.
Jennifer Liston: The poetry and poetics of the 'Rescued Poem'
[Jennifer Liston grew up in Co Galway, Ireland and now lives in Adelaide, South Australia. Her procedural poetry, as presented here, adds significantly to the line of such poetry in modern and postmodern writing — in both her poems and poetics. The idea of the “rescued poem” is indubitably her own, and a further collection of poems as examples will shortly be gathered as a book. (J.R.)]
What Is a ‘Rescued Poem’?
Reading and playing
Scholars and critics too initiate “transpositions.” Even a casual observation can make a familiar poem appear in a new light, for example when Helen Vendler wonders, in her review of Wallace Stevens’s Selected Poems, what we would make of “The Snow Man” if it had been called “Stoicism in a Failed Marriage.” Sometimes such interventions go further, transforming our ideas about not only what a poem means but what it does and even what it is.
On Eileen Myles’s 'Hot Night': queer / urban / image
In the introduction to Cruising Utopia: The Then and There of Queer Futurity, José Esteban Muñoz addresses the caretaking relationship between Eileen Myles and James Schuyler as one of anti-antirelational queer kinship.
Translation and coolitude
The poetics of Lalbihari Sharma
Gaiutra Bahadur, author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture put Lalbihari Sharma’s Holi Songs of Demerara in my hands. This text was composed in 1916 in a mix of Awadhi and Bhojpuri by an indentured laborer in Guyana. He chronicles life on the plantation, suffering at the hands of the British, and nirgun philosophy — a philosophy that holds the human soul as not separate from the Divine.
The swerve of verse: Lucretius' 'Of Things' Nature' and the necessity of poetic form
The de-versification of Lucretius -- treating it as prose -- is an unintended theme of the most famous contemporary account of Of Things' Nature, Stephen Greenblatt's The Swerve: How the World Became Modern (2011). Greenblatt begins The Swerve with an account of his youthful discovery of Lucretius through Martin Ferguson Smith's excellent prose translation. Greenblatt pretty much sticks to citing this prose version throughout his book, despite his nod to Dryden as the best for conveying Lucretius's "ardor" and also noting that he consulted all the translations.