Monday, February 9, 2009

Language Poetry and Anglo-American Empiricism?

A question that's been Tweeting my mind...

A review HERE of Rae Armantrout's recently released Versed ... this is Silliman to make you a believer--there is nothing vague or impressionistic when he writes about poetry, like an Ansel Adams photo--sharp focus in bright light, surgical precision--and in this post, writing about one his oldest friends, deeply moving... a review to print out a,d save... and savor. Whatever Language Poetry is or was, can see here that there are no simple catagorical answers you can apply to pin down its most accomplished practitioners.
Still... the question persists... is what they share(d) no more than an indefinite zeitqeist? I can't help but notice a relationship, and at the same time,  be relieved to see that some of the poets who represented the movement from the beginning have moved out of the grip of its strangulated nominalism... if they were ever really in its hold.

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