Monday, October 5, 2009

Here is a long overdo piece of self promotion, and some for the publisher as well. My page on Amazon, and the site for WordTechs Press. There may be a few copies of Laughter floating around, I'm not sure; never did hear whatever happened to Good SAMARitan.

Just a quick note here on a poet I've been reading lately, Joanne Kyger. I will admit right up front, I don't get it. She strikes me as prosy in a Welch/Whalen kind of way, but whereas I find something to take away from almost anything they write, I just don't get much out of her. The language strikes me as lax for the most part, and I don't find much of substantive value in most of her stuff. It's as if when she has something to say, she says it loosely and inexactly; when her language tightens up, she does too little with it. Obviously a journal/notebook poet, like Whalen or late Blackburn, she doesn't seem to have the interesting way of putting things together like Whalen, or the feel for language rhythms like Blackburn. Which isn't to say she has nothing of value, or isn't a possible resource for other poets. As I make my way through As Ever, I find that unlike a lot of poets, her later work is an improvement on what came before. Whatever my initial impressions may be, so many poets for whom I have a great deal of respect see great things in her, so I'm sure I will be going back again and again over time.