Arise, arise

Welcome back.  I checked the most recent edition of "A" out of the library and read Barry Ahearn's intro, and I checked Zukofsky's play Arise, arise out of another library.  I inhaled both of that as well.  I struggle reading a lot of things, but I have a huge capacity for Zukofsky and writing about Zukofsky.  Not that I understood Arise, arise.  I enjoyed it, but I could not summarize it.  I think reading Pound's Cantos back around 1983 I developed the habit of reading difficult texts as music, not worrying much about the meaning.  I do that most of the time when I read poetry.   Some poetry yields its meaning easily, but I tend to read poetry out loud, focusing on the sound.

Recently I've read some Frank O'Hara.  Thirty years ago I considered him my favorite poet, but now I struggle to read much of him.  I still love a few of his poems: "The Day Lady Died,"  "On Talking with the Sun of Fire Island," etc.  I fell in love with Ken Koch's poetry in 1984, and that led me to his friends Frank O'Hara and John Ashberry.

Last night I taught "The Love Song of Alfred Prufrock" at the community college.  I marvel at the music of that poem.  Now, do I appreciate it because I've read it so often and taught it so often?  I don't know where to turn to find more poems I'll love as much at that one.  Zukofsky seems my favorite guide at present, but perhaps I'll return to Eliot one of the these years in a more serious way.

Error on Page - I just finished Upper Limit Music: The Writing of Louis Zukofsky and I wanted to write about it, but this computer will only let me write in the title field. Charles Olson wrote about composition by field, and the term "open field" showed up in at least one of the essay in the book on Zukofsky I just read. I enjoyed the book, but I didn't get a sense of mastery of Zukofsky's thought and/or writings from any of the contributors. I think I like the writings on Zukofsky by Guy Davenport, Robert Creeley and Hugh Kenner best, and none of them appeared in that collections, except where quoted by other authors. Actually, I don't think any of them quoted Creeley. I would like to read Robert Duncan's essay or essays on Mr. Z. Next I plan to reread Zukofsky's Collected Shorter Poetry, but first I plan to read How to Read a Latin Poem If You Can't Read Latin Yet and Selected Poems by Frank O'Hara. See you next Wednesday.