Dennis Cooper

Who is Dennis Cooper?

Occupation: Novelist, poet, critic, editor, blogger, and performance artist
Subjects: Sexual fantasy, existentialism, death, troubled teenagers, drug use, the inadequacy of language

Doesn’t it sound marvelous?
Paul Hoover included Dennis Cooper in this anthology as a prime example of the blank generation of the 1980s, quoting Edmund White who claimed:

“In one sense the refinement of the blank generation consists in not selling anything. No moral lesson, no message, no political outcry, no artistic slogan – nothing is insisted on and the voice is never raised. Indeed, this is a world governed by style alone […]”

The three poems Hoover selected really do this perfectly. But it’s been a long time since 1994 and Cooper has been busy. I recommend having a look around his website and also his blog. The eclectic mix really drew me in. I could already spend days just digitally leafing through the pages of the Little Caesar magazines…

Links:
http://www.dennis-cooper.net/
http://denniscooper-theweaklings.blogspot.co.uk/

For my own response I was struggling a little… The result is a different take on the traditional form of the Kyrielle, a medieval poetic form often associated with Christian themes of redemption and praise.


~ - ~


Gods, Drugs etc
(A kyrielle after Dennis Cooper)

On blackened aluminium foil
You breathe in as the liquid boils
You fly sweet on the angel’s wing
You could do fucking anything

Slow paraffin blood cream and shout
The silence when you breathe it out
All those dumb puppet on a string
You could do fucking anything

Ms Hardcore    you’ve done it all twice
You paid the cloaked black man    a pretty gritty sickening price
Darling you’ve grown awfully thin
You could do fucking anything

There are voices raw in the air
Carving deep in your sockets    taking their share
Red-eyed rabbits beneath your skin
You could do fucking anything

Yes, you can deal with whatever comes
On your knees now looking for crumbs
One big wicked heavenly grin
You could do fucking anything

Robert Grenier

"I HATE SPEECH" - Ron Silliman once suggested that this little phrase by Robert Grenier “announced a breach - and a new moment in American writing”: the Language School.

Robert Grenier’s work takes many forms – from little file cards in a box (Sentences), to a “book-length broadside” of poems (Cambridge M’ass). In his early career he was famous for his minimalist one-line poems (read some thought about them on Ron Silliman’s blog here), whereas his recent works are exploring cognition itself and focus on “making explicit […] the “coming to recognition” process of reading” (Ron Silliman).

I sincerely invite everyone to take a look at the texts by and about Grenier online – it is truly ground-breaking amazing stuff.

I felt, my own response to Grenier really had to be something more than just a few words on a page, so instead I decided to overlay our living room window view with words. See the result below.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Grenier_(poet)
http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/grenier/
http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Grenier.php
http://eclipsearchive.org/authors.html (scroll down to “G”)

~ - ~

Marjorie Welish

Marjorie Welish is not just a poet. Most of her work is actually focused on art in a broader sense – as a painter, art critic and historian. Visiting her website I was actually struggling to find any reference to her earlier poetic work at all – and yet the links to the poetry community are showing subtly, not least in the use of Welish’s paintings on the cover of a number of Poetics Journal reprints edited by Lyn Hejinian.

Paul Hoover included 5 of her poems in the anthology, highlighting their meditative character, rhetorical detachment and imagistic complexity. He noted:

“Welish’s poetry avoids conclusiveness and the grand gesture; instead it delights in ambiguity and theoretical difficulty, and finds lyricism there.”

I have to say, I find her poetic work very powerful and I sincerely love her ambiguity. You can find some of her poems online at the EPC.

For my response I tried to focus on the peculiar mixture of ambiguity and meditation. I drew on the philosophical writings of John Rawls – more specifically on the first few sentences of his ground-breaking Theory of Justice. I subjected the original text to a procedure of translation, using online translation tools to translate the text back and forth between English, Russian, Korean, Chinese and Arabic. I was curious to see how the text’s meaning would shift and open up for ambiguity in the process and how different version of the text would interact with the original words by Rawls. The outcome is a political piece (as so often with me), but also a piece concerned with ambiguity and the manifestation of abstract thought in words.

Links: 

http://www.marjoriewelish.com/Home.html

http://epc.buffalo.edu/authors/welish/

~ - ~ 

Within this book, called Justice

one

the role of justice    the role of the judiciary    the role of the just    judicial role that is truth such as dignity   social services system  that is  justice is the first virtue     of social institutions    as truth is system    the ministry of justice   the ministry of truth     such as dignity     social services system    truth such as dignity    is the system    justice is the first virtue     justice is    as is dignity     the first is the first virtue    is dignity    justice is the virtue    just is the first   is of social institutions     as truth is of systems of thought  

two

   if you are not real   such economic theories      such as truth    as justice is   but you need to modify     you need to reject       or grace and economy     grace and      economic theory      but grace and economy    must be rejected or modified     if it's not real     if it’s not real     economic theory      must be rejected   must be first modified    but grace and economy such as rejected     or  modified     if it's not real     a theory however elegant     a theory however     a theory however grace and economy     and modified    a theory however    an elegant theory     a theory however elegant and economical must be rejected    or revised if it is untrue     a theory however social services system    a theory however must be elegant   and justice must be the first virtue    must be grace and economy    must be dignity   a theory however elegant must be  if you are not real      you need to reject   dignity however elegant 

three

     in addition      the legal and institutional mechanisms are effective     and are accurate      likewise laws and institutions    to be honest     regardless      laws and institutions    regardless of how efficient     regardless of how precise arrangements should   to be honest   regardless of the honest      regardless of  revised or abolished mechanisms   similarly    as dignity    should be reformed or abolished if fair    similarly   to be honest must be reformed or abolished    must be abolished   must be precise    to be honest    regardless of how     similarly    must be regardless    the effective and precise mechanisms  should be reformed    should be abolished to be honest    if fair    likewise    no matter    if they are unjust    regardless of how efficient and precise    to be honest    well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust    similarly unjust   must be laws and institutions    similarly unjust   to be honest must be grace and economy       must be revised   regardless of the honest        should be abolished if they are unjust

four

   each is full     each person possesses     each one built in social justice   even if sanctity of public welfare    even if as a whole cannot override   each is full   each person    inviolable       each person possess   even if sanity    each possess an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override    each is full    inviolable    everyone has a built in community justice even if sanctity of social welfare as a whole cannot override    even if the sanctity    even the public welfare     founded on justice    each is full   each is a person cannot ignore the dignity of public    the dignity of public welfare even if built on social justice    cannot override as a whole   each person possesses    each person is full     each built in social justice    the dignity    the grace and economy    each is full   in the first virtue    in the system    the welfare of    the inviolability of each in every    grace  

five

     and justice  for this reason   justice    for the loss of freedom    denies for this reason    justice    right by a greater good   grace and economy     for this reason justice denies that the loss of freedom for some   the freedom    is made right by the greater good shared by others    for this reason   for this justice   in dignity     the freedom of losing some major benefits is corrected one being shared    the justice by others for this reason denies freedom to lose several important advantages is the right shared   is the several important advantages to lose freedom    justice denies for this reason shared by others on the right   

six

     it does not allow     grace and economy   the first virtue    and dignity     the sacrifices    it does not allow that     few are outweighed by the large sum of many      it does not allow offset sacrifices     you will not be able to compensate    you sacrifice a lot to enjoy advantages of the minority imposed will not be able to compensate    it does not allow that the sacrifices imposed on a few are outweighed     it does not allow to be outweighed by the larger sum of advantages enjoyed by many    it does not allow that the sacrifices    you will not be able to compensate    it will not allow     to enjoy advantages     the offset of sacrifice imposed on minorities an advantage enjoyed by many large amount 

seven

   thus in a just society     therefore in a just society of liberties     in the equal    in the citizens freedoms    therefore in a just society the liberties of equal citizenship    in the society of citizens’ freedoms    from a position comparable to civil liberties     in a just society   equal citizenship are taken as settled     on an equal footing is resolved    on an equal   footing will be solved   thus from a position comparable to civil liberties   will be resolved in a fair society

eight

    judicial protection    the right secured by justice are not subject     the rights of non-compromising political or social interests of stones   the rights secured by justice are not subject    they are not subject to political bargaining or to the calculus of social interest    to the right calculus or social interests of stones     judicial protection of the rights of the uncompromising political and social interest of stones    understanding the political and social relations     the settlement of a stone    the throw of a stone of the right of judicial protection   by justice are not subject to bargaining or the calculus of stones  

nine

   let us only tolerate theory   the only thing that permits us    allow us an error allowed the only thing theory    there is no better one   there is no better one    let us allow only theories    the only thing that permits us to acquiesce in an erroneous theory is the lack of a better one     the only thing    theory is no better    allow us an error    the only thing theory    there is no better one

ten

    it’s even more    in order to prevent irregularities    only when it is required again    analogously   an injustice is tolerable only when it is necessary to avoid an even greater injustice    similarly   the silence    similarly only when it is necessary   in order to avoid further injustice     the silence on injustices only when it is necessary in order to avoid further    analogously   it’s even more in order to prevent irregularities   on when it is required again   negative silence    even greater injustice   similarly silence injustices    when it is necessary only in order to avoid      similarly  

eleven

  human activities    truth and justice    is the first virtue   is relentless    is the first virtue   in truth     human activity is   in truth and justice   is the first virtue   is brutal     human  truth and justice is the first virtue   is human relentlessly    human activity   being first    being first relentless   human activity   is brutal   in truth and justice   is human activity    being first virtues of human activity     being human    being in truth and brutally    truth and justice    is the first virtue   is relentless   being first virtues of human activities truth and justice are uncompromising   that is true

Diane Wakoski

Diane Wakoski is often associated with the Deep Image movement yet her creative career goes far beyond the boundaries of this particular school of poetry. As Paul Hoover points out, the label is connected mostly to her early years as a poet in which she created stunning surrealist pieces like “Blue Monday” (which was the inspiration for my own response). But her style has changed somewhat since then, moving from dreamlike abstraction to a more narrative style. Her very personal and direct pieces might remind of the Beats or Confessionals and often looks at the unpleasant and painful parts of people’s lives. The Poetry Foundation quotes Peter Schjeldahl saying about Wakoski’s poems in the New York Times Book Review:

"[They] are professionally supple and clear . . . but their pervasive unpleasantness makes her popularity rather surprising. One can only conclude that a number of people are angry enough at life to enjoy the sentimental and desolating resentment with which she writes about it." 

I am definitely one of those people who share her rage. – Although not in this poem, for once I actually wrote a happy one.

Links:

http://dwakoski.com/

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/diane-wakoski

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Wakoski

~ - ~

In Mint Condition

Ocean green ocean of soft

cushion moss morning leaf

a dream’s citrusy taste still tingling

lingering tender rest breast fingertip

traces on apple sheets

He holds me

in mint condition

aquamarine at the bottom of my spine

through every fibre I shimmer emerald

taking luscious sips of flavoursome chartreuse

breathing pine

with callow sun light caught in the eastern window

my leaves turn

my roots stretch eager and deep

I am sheltered delicate flesh in avocado sheathing

He my forester

his rake untangling my twisted blades

caressing my shoulders

pulling patiently my miserable weeds

in my meadows he opens the sky

on a morning of malachite

my jade in the palm shivering

in mint condition

only in his light

Russell Edson

The Poetry Foundation calls Russell Edson the “godfather of the prose poem in America”.  His aim– as he himself explains in his essay “Portrait of the Writer as a Fat Man” is a 

“poetry freed from the definition of poetry, and a prose free of the necessity of fiction: a personal form disciplined not by other literature but by unhappiness, this a way to be happy.”

The result are surreal, fable-like texts, almost brief plays full of strangeness and playfulness. Donald Hall said of Edson’s poetry, “It’s fanciful, it’s even funny—but his humour carries discomfort with it, like all serious humour.”

You can read a few of this poems of the Poetry Foundation website:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/russell-edson

A few more can be found here: http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cinichol/CreativeWriting/323/MiscpoemsEdson.htm

In Hoover’s anthology you can find Edson’s “Conjugal”, “Ape”, “A Performance at Hog Theatre”, “The Toy Maker” and “The Optical Prodigal”.

~ - ~

Conjugation / Beugung

After Russell Edson

A man is bending a verb. He is bending it around himself and around others. He is bending it around no one in particular, around his Jack Russell as he jumps to catch the ball.

He is dressing the world in rearranged syllables. He is busy with the Rubik’s cube.

The man is wrapping everything in paper. He is folding it carefully around himself and everyone he sees. He is placing things softly in the creases. He goes to buy string and stamps.

John Giorno

I am sure John Giorno is one of the coolest people on the planet.

Visit his website and you will be greeted with him standing in front of a wall of giant posters proclaiming “It’s not what happens, it’s how you handle it”, “We gave a party for the gods and the gods all came” and “Life is a killer”. If one things is for certain it is that with John Giorno poetry is alive. Paul Hoover calls Giorno the “leader in the development of poetry as performance and entertainment medium” and there is loads to see of that – not just in his written poetry but also in the various recordings by the Giorno Poetry Systems. I definitely recommend browsing through the sounds which are available on his website, featuring names like John Cage and Allen Ginsberg, Patty Smith, William Burroughs, Anne Waldman and Laurie Anderson – told you he was cool.

http://www.johngiorno.net/johngiorno.html

~ - ~

Life is the worst decisions

After John Giorno

I wish you could

say something

for certain. I

hover. Feeling lo-res

acting out updates.

They are laughing too loud.

Someone is

always online.

They are laughing

way too loud

and

someone is always

online. The vibrations

felt

down to the

bone. I

meet. I

need to post.

Eyes wide at 3am by

blue light and

nervous. I

make the worst

decisions when

I am thinking

too much. I

make the worst

decision.

I am still typing.

He is

typing. I

make the

worst decisions when

I am thinking too

much.

Sunlight in my

highlights and large

shades

with a lo-fi filter.

That’s the trick

that works best.

I look the success

I have.

I look success.

I look success.

Like

it. We all filter.

I am a selective

human and maybe

not so. We

all filter. I

make the worst

decisions on

a Saturday night.

Zeros

and ones add

up to

a pretty big number.

I am user-generated too.

I am generated.

I generate

full-time even when I

shouldn’t. There’s a

tag

on pretty

much everything.

You can follow me.

You can follow me

anywhere. My trail smells

expensive. Comes cheap.

There’s a tag on

pretty

much everything.

I am up to date.

I am tactile.

I am intuitive.

I have feel.

I stay connected.

I stay connected.

I feed you if you feed me.

I am hashing things. 140

at a time. I am

cutting. My most rigorous

editor. I am hashing

things. An incision down the

spine. I make

the worse decisions

when I am

trying. I cut

myself. I make the

worse decisions.

I am online.

Life is a

killer.

Ron Silliman

Poetry (it seems) is Ron Silliman’s life. He started publishing poetry in his early twenties, at first in mainstream journals like Poetry Northwest and TriQuarterly but moved away from this kind of poetry fairly soon. Today he is probably one of the most influential figure in contemporary poetics (at least according to the Poetry Foundation) and an important part of the original group of language poets. I could write whole paragraphs about him and his amazing work which encompasses more than 30 books of poetry, critical work, collaborations and anthologies and includes ground-breaking ideas like the “new sentence”. Since the 1970s he has been working on one complex piece of work entitled Ketjak which is made up of a series of individual books: The Age of Huts (1974-1980), Tjanting (1979-1981), The Alphabet (1979-2004), and Universe (2005-present). Each of these books makes use of a slightly different procedure, so e.g. Tjanting is written according to the Fibonacci number sequence, whereas The Alphabet represents a long book made of smaller books, each of which focuses on a different letter of the alphabet. I highly recommend reading the biography on the Poetry Foundation website to get even a glimpse of the amplitude of his work.

I am personally a big fan of language poetry and love playing around with writing procedures and rigid constraints. I am with the essayist Hank Lazer who once noted that language poetry is “following upon the most adventurous work of Gertrude Stein, Louis Zukofsky, William Carlos Williams and Jack Spicer.” Who would say no to adventures like that?

Following Ron Silliman’s procedure of Tjanting, I also chose a number sequence to determine the number of sentences in each paragraph. In my case this number sequence is 5-smooth (aka regular numbers), a numbers sequence which also appears in music theory in the just intonation of the diatonic scale. See below for the result.

Links:

http://ronsilliman.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/ron-silliman

http://wings.buffalo.edu/epc/authors/silliman/

http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/s_z/silliman/online_poems.htm

~ - ~

5-smooth

After Ron Silliman 

So what.

Cool and caring sweet on a late night bar stool. She smiled.

Smooth over what matters. It was compelling. The gleam caught in the brass yellow light shivering like a hot tune.

No, no, no. The definite certainty over little flicks as he drew it to his mouth. Singing. Sweet sweet sugar baby in the murky tea.

Dancing like a rain cloud. A land of just. The pitches in a single octave of this scale along rising steady as she. She shoe off caught by. A blue in green.

This could be a tune if anyone cared to blow it. This could be certainly certainty. Cool as caring in a long way past the bottom of a high bowl. Don’t look at me that way. She said. She keep them on the whole time while it trickled down her spine.

Don’t mingle. Stay sweet. Don’t be hasty with the burning iron. In the corner of the room the lights drew to a close softly like the blues. Track listing evenly divide powers of sixty, for example like the k-smooth. It was sticking to the drum beat counterhoop clockwise. The brushes on the skin like white sand through an hourglass. She kept it slow.

A filing cabinet with the dirty sleeves. Three fingers of scotch and a roll of mints. On the bar it was getting later every minute. Silver sheen in the dim before he went. It was a push and a pull and sticky chewy saxophone. It was driving everybody to the corners of the night. This isn’t a story. So what if this isn’t a plot. She shoe off caught by in the rain.

Black keys stroking something heavy behind the backstage door. Something sensually compelling behind the brass wood. She drew the stool an inch closer smelling sweetly. She said. Little matters most. An American song book lay open beside a bottle of red and a handkerchief. Rings of red and Jupiter. Which might be the solution – a regular number. A caller disconnected, resolved in aspirin. A simple tune filled the sky.

She shoe off caught by sense of midnight. The laces around her thighs. My heavy breath so no no. So what. So better gin, no hesitation. He held a feeble note in sweaty palms. Bright light she waited, playing jukebox. A dime thrown through an algorithm into something white. A blue in green. A sudden shudder. A tune changed numbers in a certain way. A strange fix and kind of blue.