how/now
Many interesting things are happening with the folks over at The Mississippi Review. They have extended their $1000 Poetry Prize until November 1; with the only restrictions being: "Fee is $15 per entry … poetry entries should be three poems totaling 10 pages or less." That is easy. I think I shall submit TIBURÓN IF THE LAMB, MOON JELLYFISH and OCTOPI to them and see what happens. They are also seeking submissions for their upcoming January 2006 issue: Defining the Literary Now. Their question goes as follows:
Is there now a “now” distinct from a clearly recognizable “then,” or are we just the New Edwardians, drinking, picnicking and being clever until the next explosion shifts our paradigm?
What is this? Instead of being Edwardians of any stripe, shall we then be the "It Girl" of Poetry? The Clara Bow of "Now"?1 Isn't "Now" a culturally constructed idea to begin with? Isn't "Now" a corruption, prevarication, misconstruction of everything that is going on?
This urge to pin point where we are in some literary map, to set up definitions, to hem us in is much more "Now" than any literary movement we could devise. Deconstruction is popular in poetry today, but so is stylized form. The only thing every literary critics has in common is this mania of using chop logic to characterize us, of endless theorizing, of (mind-bogglingly dull) analyzing our "situation" in "history," why not just quote Super Tramp? — "Won’t you please, please tell me what we’ve learned/ I know it sounds absurd/ But please tell me who I am." Yes, what is this ready-made, prefabricated, submissive "community" I happen to be part of? Who are all these "Now" poets who spend their time, not writing beautifully poetry, not amorous, not burning, not even ebullient; but rather worrying about how some Future Academy might receive all of this?
we've
succumb
to believethat we grieve
for reason.
All of this! Why not substitute "we analyze/ for reason?" instead? Where is that "ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo we are suppose to burn with anyway? I love splendor, dazzling talent, lavish beauty; so many fantastic things are happening right now I will never witness, be a part of. The Tenth Kalamazoo Russian Festival will happen this October 29. The Kirov Ballet and Orchestra will perform Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty at the Detrot Opera House. Don't think, just do!
"how?"
we ask,
and "now?"
we vow
that we shall bask
in hoopla, but how?
hue and cry and kowtow?
beg that each task
be glorious? now
we hide our bent brow,
dim nose under, what? mask
and key? somehow
we will endow
each octet with flavor; basque
blues but spanish rhyme? now,
now, we say; we are judge, hoosegow,
maven. let our words unmask
each "how?" each "now"! "how";
as in: "how/ now?" "how/ now." "how/ now!"
- Speaking of which, if you get the chance to see them, Blue Dahlia's collabrotive art/ funk soundtrack to the Clara Bow film "It" is worth the $2.95 per gallon it takes for you to drive up and see them. Blue Dahlia rocks! [back]
