Amy King: I’m The Man Who Loves You
I’ve been meaning to write about Amy King’s poetry for some time now and plan on a longer post at a later date. (Click here to go to her blog.) As a non-poet, I find writing about poetry intimidating and as a reader of poetry, I use very loose guidelines in my judgement of poetry. Here are my reasonings, and an Amy King poem:
While discussing my difficulty in judging poetry with my husband, he said something to the effect of “poetry is more like the visual arts in that it’s very subjective and more abstract, whereas fiction is, usually, a narrative and less object like. ” Now, this is a generalization and there are many exceptions. But I said, “exactly”! Thanks husband, for saying what I wanted to say, but I couldn’t say it because I was half drunk and confused and had a cigarette in my face. So there is that.
Then there is a thread from ages ago where a writer talked about looking at Van Gogh’s paintings to see how he put paint on a canvas. I responded in the comment thread something to the extent that I look at Van Gogh’s painting to experience a gush of the vast beauty and awe and suffering that is our short lifespan on this mysterious planet. When I read a poem, it is with a similiar eye. This is perhaps because I am not a poet. If I were a poet, I would maybe want to know how, why, and so forth, the poem is constructed as it is. I do read fiction that way (but not always, I still read with my heart instead of my head quite often). But poetry- it’s just an emotional bath for me for the most part. Just a dip into the soul, a slight massage of the mind, a moment of not watching tennis. And with that, I present you a poem that I like very much:
Our Spirit Animal Shapes
The nails of an honest masculine hand come
to grip beer in a bag with porcelain figure mentality
that others smash across the head
of a beating body, so it’s impatient of me to lethal
and legitimize alone time in your closet
where the evidence is flushed, fondled,
marveled at in cruel fashion & turned into sculpture
for therapeutic benefits. Then hush the blind finger
bandit in that drunken abyss,
I also made some found poems from
Hurricane Katrina because I really just copied down
a few quotation marks and broke them into lines
that abuse the sterile use of deadly events,
minor or major moments American
in peril and complete nudity on the big ticket,
a special economic zone that compounds
personal bias for our spirit animal shapes
to cash in on when you finally come to recognize
the ways in which you pretend and exist on
the same plane, where the remaining us lie to sleep.
Tags: amy king
pr,
you look at poetry the way it should be interpreted.
i am glad to see some poetry around here.
pr,
you look at poetry the way it should be interpreted.
i am glad to see some poetry around here.
i like this. i like that cover, too. and i like the title. i wonder if the wilco reference was intentional…
i like this. i like that cover, too. and i like the title. i wonder if the wilco reference was intentional…
Good question. I hope to do an interview with her this summer-
i recorded a cover of that song for my wife. it still has one of my favorite guitar moments that i’ve ever managed to get out of myself.
i recorded a cover of that song for my wife. it still has one of my favorite guitar moments that i’ve ever managed to get out of myself.
wilco reference 100% intentional. it’s a woman saying “i’m the man who loves you.” i’ll leave it to you to put it together. and she also uses “a ghost is born” as a title in the book.
…YES, MORE POETRY PLEASE!!!
wilco reference 100% intentional. it’s a woman saying “i’m the man who loves you.” i’ll leave it to you to put it together. and she also uses “a ghost is born” as a title in the book.
…YES, MORE POETRY PLEASE!!!
nice. wilco references alone would be enough to convince me to buy a book…
nice. wilco references alone would be enough to convince me to buy a book…
her work is awesome! thanks for the intro. and i like the way you and your husband talk about poetry
her work is awesome! thanks for the intro. and i like the way you and your husband talk about poetry
“to experience a gush of the vast beauty and awe and suffering that is our short lifespan on this mysterious planet”
I think you’ve got the right idea, for non-poets and poets alike.
“to experience a gush of the vast beauty and awe and suffering that is our short lifespan on this mysterious planet”
I think you’ve got the right idea, for non-poets and poets alike.
good one pr
html giant sometimes feels like pitchfork if pitchfork only talked about the “detroit sound” or something
every now and then it’s great to read about death metal or sex rap
sometimes it feels like poets and writers in here or yaddo or a borders cafe
it didn’t used to though, oh boo hoo i’m hating aren’t i
i just read Waldrop’s The Space Of Half An Hour on my lunch break
fuck i should blog about it
i like talky poetry reviews, thanks pr
good one pr
html giant sometimes feels like pitchfork if pitchfork only talked about the “detroit sound” or something
every now and then it’s great to read about death metal or sex rap
sometimes it feels like poets and writers in here or yaddo or a borders cafe
it didn’t used to though, oh boo hoo i’m hating aren’t i
i just read Waldrop’s The Space Of Half An Hour on my lunch break
fuck i should blog about it
i like talky poetry reviews, thanks pr
maybe my favorite part:
“Then hush the blind finger
bandit in that drunken abyss,”
maybe my favorite part:
“Then hush the blind finger
bandit in that drunken abyss,”
Thanks John,
I’m glad you liked this post, although I wouldn’t call it a review, but it is talky.
I like your little self-conscious bit about hating. Your comment isn’t so hatey. You didn’t start it with “this is dumb” or something like that. But I will disagree with you that this blog is anything like P&W or a Borders Cafe (not that I have anything wrong with either, I don’t) but has been, from the beginning, a blog that posts about death metal ( that would be Matthew Simmons and myself ) and sex rap (many of the others, Blake, Sam off the top of my head) and Andrew Kaufman (Chelsea), and Golden Hemorrhoids and other random stuff with great regularity.
I will look up Waldrop. You should blog about his book.
sex punk < sex rap
sex punk < sex rap
moted
moted
yes, i really like your description of what poetry is and how it functions.
yes, i really like your description of what poetry is and how it functions.
Cover/Wilco/Poetry
1) The cover of this is amazing
2) Jay Bennet’s death is the celebrity death that has most saddened me since Paul Newman. Summerteeth is far and away my favorite Wilco record. When he heard the news, a friend of mine said: ‘Now Wilco is permanently relegated to Dad-Rock’. shit.
3) The phrase: “Abuse the sterile use of deadly events” rules. That reminds me a lot of the Beckett thing about abusing language, but in a fresh and good way.
Cover/Wilco/Poetry
1) The cover of this is amazing
2) Jay Bennet’s death is the celebrity death that has most saddened me since Paul Newman. Summerteeth is far and away my favorite Wilco record. When he heard the news, a friend of mine said: ‘Now Wilco is permanently relegated to Dad-Rock’. shit.
3) The phrase: “Abuse the sterile use of deadly events” rules. That reminds me a lot of the Beckett thing about abusing language, but in a fresh and good way.