This is an intriguing response to the scorn for a poet who makes baubles, as exemplified in George Oppen's poem "The Gesture" (which is the first section of his "Five Poems about Poetry") in which Oppen compares the poet writing a poem that the poet values, and intends to grasp, to a poet holding an apple. Then Oppen devalues poets who create baubles by asking ". . .how does the salesman / Hold a bauble he intends // To sell?" Here, the bauble is not dismissed the way Oppen treats it but, instead, is adamantine and has its own integrity. In the Zambaras poem the poet creating an adamantine bauble is not held in contempt. Is Zambaras drawing the distinction between a flimsy bauble and an adamantine one? Why do we read poems? This is a provocative poem. Have I done with it as I please? (And it does please me to see Zambaras remind us of how close the words "pleasure" and "please" are to each other.)
Such a detailed intriguing response to this little piece only serves to reinforce what I've believed for over 40 years, namely that you are as carefully studied with your criticism of the poetry of others as you are with your own. Thanks for both.
Heh, true that!
ReplyDeleteTom, good to be reminded you're a true believer, even though I had a strong hunch beforehand that you were--thanks!
DeleteThis is an intriguing response to the scorn for a poet who makes baubles, as exemplified in George Oppen's poem "The Gesture" (which is the first section of his "Five Poems about Poetry") in which Oppen compares the poet writing a poem that the poet values, and intends to grasp, to a poet holding an apple. Then Oppen devalues poets who create baubles by asking ". . .how does the salesman / Hold a bauble he intends // To sell?" Here, the bauble is not dismissed the way Oppen treats it but, instead, is adamantine and has its own integrity. In the Zambaras poem the poet creating an adamantine bauble is not held in contempt. Is Zambaras drawing the distinction between a flimsy bauble and an adamantine one? Why do we read poems? This is a provocative poem. Have I done with it as I please? (And it does please me to see Zambaras remind us of how close the words "pleasure" and "please" are to each other.)
ReplyDeleteSuch a detailed intriguing response to this little piece only serves to reinforce what I've believed for over 40 years, namely that you are as carefully studied with your criticism of the poetry of others as you are with your own. Thanks for both.
Delete