April 1st, 2010 / 12:17 pm
Craft Notes

Styles

Do you fear style in poetry?

Do you skeptic it?

Once the style is figured out, does it become less impactful?

My favorite writers are styled.

Their words have good hair.

Lack of style seems to be what keeps good words from becoming distinguished words.

I still look for things that I think are “cool”

“Cool” I think appeals to the mind more than the heart.

It doesn’t need to be overt.

“Cool” is the neon sign that comes to mind when reading Cows by Frederic Boyer just published in the new Puerto Del Sol

V.
The cows are useful and sure. Their existence is an infinite number of successive
presents.
It is thus understandable with what pleasure we exterminated them.
The cows are only themselves when gathering into their own finitude the infinite
totality in which they found themselves. Beneath a tree. In a meadow. On the earth
lost in the universe.
The human being is quickly jealous of the cows. Oh, if only the gods would arm
me with such power—comes the muffled voice of tiny Telemachus that is held in The
Odyssey.
The cows don’t read what’s in our hearts. They don’t understand us any better
than we understand ourselves. They ask neither for our recognition nor our gratitude
nor our hate as we ask it of ourselves. And never have we contemplated them in their
truth.
Thought, the cows immediately knew in our presence, betrays general indifference.
It’s only when dangers become evident that indifference ends. In our presence
the cows learned this at their own expense.

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30 Comments

  1. ryan

      What would it mean to fear style in poetry?

  2. ryan

      What would it mean to fear style in poetry?

  3. Matt Cozart
  4. Matt Cozart
  5. Trey

      Brian, could you maybe give an example of poetry that lacks style? I’m not sure I really know what you mean. When I think of style I think of something inevitable, like you can write in a shitty style but not completely without style because style is the way you write, so if you write you at least have _a_ style. This might be wrong? In any case it doesn’t seem like that’s what you’re talking about.

  6. Trey

      Brian, could you maybe give an example of poetry that lacks style? I’m not sure I really know what you mean. When I think of style I think of something inevitable, like you can write in a shitty style but not completely without style because style is the way you write, so if you write you at least have _a_ style. This might be wrong? In any case it doesn’t seem like that’s what you’re talking about.

  7. Brian Foley

      there are others that can example better. This posit is mostly relative ramble.

      But

      I think there is a difference between combing your hair and not combing your hair.

  8. Brian Foley

      there are others that can example better. This posit is mostly relative ramble.

      But

      I think there is a difference between combing your hair and not combing your hair.

  9. mike young

      what is it called if other people comb your hair for you?

  10. mike young

      what is it called if other people comb your hair for you?

  11. Donald

      that’s when you begin to hair their comb.

  12. Donald

      that’s when you begin to hair their comb.

  13. Trey

      it took me a bit (too long probably) to “get it” but the hair combing things makes sense. thanks :o I appreciate your rambling, Brian.

  14. Trey

      it took me a bit (too long probably) to “get it” but the hair combing things makes sense. thanks :o I appreciate your rambling, Brian.

  15. Sean

      I also like the bolts to show. The wiring. Rachel Zucker might be an example.

  16. Sean

      I also like the bolts to show. The wiring. Rachel Zucker might be an example.

  17. jordan castro

      sweating pretty bad, just ran a little

  18. jordan castro

      sweating pretty bad, just ran a little

  19. reynard

      i think it would be more interesting to consider

      how does style play out in translation? this is a translation.

      do you think the french cut their hair the same way we do?

      seems more like a comb-over

  20. reynard

      i think it would be more interesting to consider

      how does style play out in translation? this is a translation.

      do you think the french cut their hair the same way we do?

      seems more like a comb-over

  21. Jeremiah

      Running fartleks?

  22. Jeremiah

      Running fartleks?

  23. Sean

      Did someone say fartleks?

  24. Sean

      Did someone say fartleks?

  25. dave e

      oh shit you didn’t go there

  26. dave e

      ha, sean, i knew you’d be all over that

      i have a friend who runs competitvely and he says that word sometimes w/o laughing

  27. dave e

      oh shit you didn’t go there

  28. dave e

      ha, sean, i knew you’d be all over that

      i have a friend who runs competitvely and he says that word sometimes w/o laughing

  29. aaron nicholas

      i like good hair that may have been deliberately worked over, but appears to just fall into place – effortless cool.

  30. aaron nicholas

      i like good hair that may have been deliberately worked over, but appears to just fall into place – effortless cool.