November 18th, 2009 / 1:35 pm
Author Spotlight

Sandra Doller, EXPLAIN YOURSELF!

explain-yourself

If you want to see a poem that excels based on its sound meaning, here’s one below the fold, from the just released IE Reader:

 

We Hunter the Excuser.
Sandra Doller

We hunter the excuser
we hunter the tree

some laundry was not being done
& its implications

its it’s

’tis ack
pracktackle

we winter here
verbiger
& free

aspirante
tied up in the trees

& your car was wooden
you did not know better
in the dream

a full jar of heroines
am I to be blamed for
aspen spring

Syntactically, I thought I was catching the drift up until “its it’s,” then the prosody swoops in and takes over. It’s like there was a brief entanglement between the cognitive meaning and the sound meaning for a second, but the sounds won big with “pracktackle” and cognition backed away, tail-tucked. It stuck around, though, right at the property line of sound, and inserts itself occasionally in the rest of the poem. When it comes to meaning, I’m glad sound won, but I’m also glad narrative stuck around.

So what I want to know is — was this a process-driven poem? Sandra Doller, EXPLAIN YOURSELF! (fingers snapping)

[Want more Dollers? How about this, from the still so holy wow Rabbit Light Movies Or, just pick up the IE Reader. You need more poetry, and this book is the who’s who of whoever you never heard of. It’s got like 50 people in it that all came through the inexplicably great IE Reading Series here in Baltimore, so it’s gotta be good — and it is. In fact, I’ll probably post a bunch more poems from it throughout the week as a sorta unofficial IE READER WEEK.]

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12 Comments

  1. Christopher Higgs

      Wow. I really, really like this poem. Now I’m gonna go hunt down other stuff by Sandra Doller. Thanks, Adam.

  2. Christopher Higgs

      Wow. I really, really like this poem. Now I’m gonna go hunt down other stuff by Sandra Doller. Thanks, Adam.

  3. Sandra Doller

      [heyhey Adam, thx! i like what yr saying, especially the bits about the right hand of sound vs. the left hand of sense (cue Rob’t Mitchum fists here). that’s the fight i fight. as for this being a process-driven piece, well, fine fine q. i suppose so, esp if by “process” you mean rhythm (snap snap). there are sure parts of the poem which offspring from other parts. then there are parts that are from other nether parts, like the “its it’s” (from a conversation w/a friend about some “its” and “it’s”es in his work, but not a reference really, just a residue). (oh that shld read “aspirante / tied up in trees” above, just bc of rhythm. no “the”). i think if you see the rest of the piece, there’s even a sense of place, a street maybe, some nature, some defiance, some he/we/you–sound/rhythm versus the world of things: there’s a fight to say something, to tell it off, to hear about it, to make some new bits of world by stringing things/non-things together–hunting & excuse. anyway that’s how it seems to me now; the poem is years old so i don’t really remember the real process–there was a train involved–i could be making this up. as for Explaining Myself, well i couldn’t possibly dahling. but thx fr asking. (& thx CH too fr hunting!) -sd. ps. here’s the whole piece below; haven’t yet seen the IE Reader but am tickled to be included.]

      We Hunter the Excuser.

      We hunter the excuser
      we hunter the tree

      some laundry was not being done
      & its implications

      its it’s

      ‘tis ack
      pracktackle

      we winter here
      verbiger
      & free

      aspirante
      tied up in trees

      & your car was wooden
      you did not know better
      in the dream

      a full jar of heroines
      am i to be blamed for
      aspen spring

      please dispute plenty
      you stop off for
      you hold on for
      place the bags on the floor

      he lifted up
      his lief

      a buoy
      an extra
      a tarnish

      plenty
      stops no man

      organize the orange
      landing

      take care of the bees
      see to the tumble
      make your face shaped square

      tell me about it.

  4. Sandra Doller

      [heyhey Adam, thx! i like what yr saying, especially the bits about the right hand of sound vs. the left hand of sense (cue Rob’t Mitchum fists here). that’s the fight i fight. as for this being a process-driven piece, well, fine fine q. i suppose so, esp if by “process” you mean rhythm (snap snap). there are sure parts of the poem which offspring from other parts. then there are parts that are from other nether parts, like the “its it’s” (from a conversation w/a friend about some “its” and “it’s”es in his work, but not a reference really, just a residue). (oh that shld read “aspirante / tied up in trees” above, just bc of rhythm. no “the”). i think if you see the rest of the piece, there’s even a sense of place, a street maybe, some nature, some defiance, some he/we/you–sound/rhythm versus the world of things: there’s a fight to say something, to tell it off, to hear about it, to make some new bits of world by stringing things/non-things together–hunting & excuse. anyway that’s how it seems to me now; the poem is years old so i don’t really remember the real process–there was a train involved–i could be making this up. as for Explaining Myself, well i couldn’t possibly dahling. but thx fr asking. (& thx CH too fr hunting!) -sd. ps. here’s the whole piece below; haven’t yet seen the IE Reader but am tickled to be included.]

      We Hunter the Excuser.

      We hunter the excuser
      we hunter the tree

      some laundry was not being done
      & its implications

      its it’s

      ‘tis ack
      pracktackle

      we winter here
      verbiger
      & free

      aspirante
      tied up in trees

      & your car was wooden
      you did not know better
      in the dream

      a full jar of heroines
      am i to be blamed for
      aspen spring

      please dispute plenty
      you stop off for
      you hold on for
      place the bags on the floor

      he lifted up
      his lief

      a buoy
      an extra
      a tarnish

      plenty
      stops no man

      organize the orange
      landing

      take care of the bees
      see to the tumble
      make your face shaped square

      tell me about it.

  5. peter b

      WINNER

  6. peter b

      WINNER

  7. Adam Robinson

      This is awesome. Thanks Sandra. It is nice to have someone respond, and in top form like this, too. A++.

  8. Adam Robinson

      This is awesome. Thanks Sandra. It is nice to have someone respond, and in top form like this, too. A++.

  9. claybanes

      Even more Sandra Doller soon.

  10. claybanes

      Even more Sandra Doller soon.

  11. Trey

      I miss this feature.

  12. Trey

      I miss this feature.