Excerpts
Duane Locke on Poetry
Excerpt after the jump:
The two pleasures I mentioned, Satori and Mystic Vision, depend for their existence, according to their adepts and believers, on the existence of a totally other transcendent extra spatio-temporal being or force such as an Absolute, an Ultimate Principle, a Universal Truth, or Surpreme Being or something that is transpersonal, non-human, and not personal and private as the creation or engenderment of the radical singularity of a concrete particular individual such as a poet. Pleasures such as Satori or a Mystic Vision take place in a spatio-temporal, earthly realm and happen to concrete particular individuals and thus are certainties. I would call such extraordinary experiences “phenomenal realities” but the reality or etiology of their causation is indeterminate and the existence of their ultimate origin, problematic. Poems are also phenomenal realities, or semiotic realities, or linguistic realities, but are not dependent for their origins in a belief in some form of extra satio-temporal transcendent existence, whether it be called a “Muse” or something else. Poems are dependent on the radical singularity of a concrete particular individual, modified by historic time and place.
Tags: Duane Locke
Fancy talk for : ‘Art is created by people, who are greatly influenced by culture.’
But very pretty fancy talk, at that.
Fancy talk for : ‘Art is created by people, who are greatly influenced by culture.’
But very pretty fancy talk, at that.
I think he doesn’t believe in God. That was my interpretation.
“Poems are dependent on the radical singularity of a concrete particular individual, modified by historic time and place.”
dude’s like, i can scare you with words. watch out. i’m scared of poetry now.
“Poems are dependent on the radical singularity of a concrete particular individual, modified by historic time and place.”
dude’s like, i can scare you with words. watch out. i’m scared of poetry now.
haha-
the whole interview- which I skimmed through and read bits and then skimmed, is pretty overwhelming. It’s not just his words that scared me- some of his ideas are pretty out there. He comes off as a very, very angry man.
But I found the interview more interesting -because of the rage and well, craziness–than his poems.
Yeah, I got that too.
I think.
Man, that’s the danger of the language of the academia… it often obfuscates a message that could, in it’s singular power, reach a much wider audience with the same effect.
Yeah, I got that too.
I think.
Man, that’s the danger of the language of the academia… it often obfuscates a message that could, in it’s singular power, reach a much wider audience with the same effect.
Without the fancy talk, that is.
Without the fancy talk, that is.
rage and craziness can draw people in. i know that’s how i do it.
rage and craziness can draw people in. i know that’s how i do it.
I think that section of the interview-as opposed to other sections that deal with how Hemingway sucks, and other dubious claims–is where he tries to claim a higherness for poetry, that has nothing to do with the divine. And it’s hard for him to defend poetry as tapping into anything “higher” and not believe in any higher. He wants to elevate poetry without believing in anything actually being beyond animal human experience? It goes on and on….very weird stuff.
His ideas on women and men and sex are the most wierd. Maybe I’ll post about it at another time.
haha-
FEAR RYAN’S RAGE AND POWER!
it’s about time someone said it :)
it’s about time someone said it :)
Please do.
Please do.
He’s saying poe
try can act as an a
theist’s enlightenment.
I think it kind
of can. Ass
uming an a
theist can ex
perience what a
theist can.
He’s saying poe
try can act as an a
theist’s enlightenment.
I think it kind
of can. Ass
uming an a
theist can ex
perience what a
theist can.
@PR: ‘His ideas on women and men and sex are the most wierd. Maybe I’ll post about it at another time.’
Please do.
@PR: ‘His ideas on women and men and sex are the most wierd. Maybe I’ll post about it at another time.’
Please do.
right. He’s redefining enlightenment to fit in an atheist’s framework, and that gets the religions wriled.. If enlightenment is what an atheist thinks it is, then the insular experience of reading poetry = enlightenment. If enlightenment is what a theist thinks it is, then the insular experience of reading poetry != enlightenment, because enlightenment is not an insular experience.
right. He’s redefining enlightenment to fit in an atheist’s framework, and that gets the religions wriled.. If enlightenment is what an atheist thinks it is, then the insular experience of reading poetry = enlightenment. If enlightenment is what a theist thinks it is, then the insular experience of reading poetry != enlightenment, because enlightenment is not an insular experience.
Darby, this is the most effective criticism of poetry I’ve encountered in awhile.
Darby, this is the most effective criticism of poetry I’ve encountered in awhile.
i googled duane locke and read this bio on him:
“Duane Locke (art) lives in rural Lakeland, Florida. Duane Locke, Ph. D. (Metaphysical Poetry) has had (as of May 07) 5,877 poems published in print and e zines and 17 print and e books published. He is also a painter, exhibited widely—a discussion of his work appears in Gary Monroe’s Extraordinary Interpretations (U of Fla press). He has a recent exhibition, “Outsider Art” at Polk Museum. Dr. Locke is also a photographer and has 289 photos published on the internet. He goes close-ups of tossed away trash, Mystic vegetation, visual music and nature (primarily small insects). For more information, interviews, awards, etc. click on Google, he has quasi half-million entries and is listed in Who’s Who in America (Marquis.) duanelocke@gmail.com”
This guy is exactly what is wrong with poetry and why i hate telling people i write/enjoy poetry. People like Locke write poetry about esoteric ideas to be published in elitist magazines by a very small group of MFA/Professors. It is all ego masturbation and the exact opposite of my definition of poetry.
Fuck Duane Locke.
i googled duane locke and read this bio on him:
“Duane Locke (art) lives in rural Lakeland, Florida. Duane Locke, Ph. D. (Metaphysical Poetry) has had (as of May 07) 5,877 poems published in print and e zines and 17 print and e books published. He is also a painter, exhibited widely—a discussion of his work appears in Gary Monroe’s Extraordinary Interpretations (U of Fla press). He has a recent exhibition, “Outsider Art” at Polk Museum. Dr. Locke is also a photographer and has 289 photos published on the internet. He goes close-ups of tossed away trash, Mystic vegetation, visual music and nature (primarily small insects). For more information, interviews, awards, etc. click on Google, he has quasi half-million entries and is listed in Who’s Who in America (Marquis.) duanelocke@gmail.com”
This guy is exactly what is wrong with poetry and why i hate telling people i write/enjoy poetry. People like Locke write poetry about esoteric ideas to be published in elitist magazines by a very small group of MFA/Professors. It is all ego masturbation and the exact opposite of my definition of poetry.
Fuck Duane Locke.
“extra satio-temporal transcendent existence”
hahaha duane get a grip on fucking reality
“extra satio-temporal transcendent existence”
hahaha duane get a grip on fucking reality
That Locke writes
poetry and you
write poetry is
what I love
about poetry
That Locke writes
poetry and you
write poetry is
what I love
about poetry
“Poems are dependent on the radical singularity of a concrete particular individual, modified by historic time and place”.
That doesn’t make sense. If you’re “modified by historic time and place”, and by extension culture etc etc, then you most certainly are not “a concrete particular individual” endowed with “radical singularity”.
I believe that he embodies what is wrong with poetry (disclaimer though – I haven’t read his work), but for very different reasons to Jereme. It’s “faux-Whitman-poet-as-prophet-ism” (me here:http://ignoretheventriloquists.blogspot.com/2009/06/steven-burts-new-thing-some-notes-in.html).
I suppose I’m one of the people that Jereme things is wrong with poetry, but I agree with Darby’s last comment. I write weird experimental stuff and enjoy it, for people who enjoy it. Others can write what they want, for people who enjoy it. If there weren’t “elitists” like me, there wouldn’t be poetry that I (and a lot of others) like, so we wouldn’t have anything to read. I don’t try and make people like my writing, and if you don’t then its fine. I dont like it when people tell me that I should like Billy Collins though.
Write and let write, to modify a cliche.
“Poems are dependent on the radical singularity of a concrete particular individual, modified by historic time and place”.
That doesn’t make sense. If you’re “modified by historic time and place”, and by extension culture etc etc, then you most certainly are not “a concrete particular individual” endowed with “radical singularity”.
I believe that he embodies what is wrong with poetry (disclaimer though – I haven’t read his work), but for very different reasons to Jereme. It’s “faux-Whitman-poet-as-prophet-ism” (me here:http://ignoretheventriloquists.blogspot.com/2009/06/steven-burts-new-thing-some-notes-in.html).
I suppose I’m one of the people that Jereme things is wrong with poetry, but I agree with Darby’s last comment. I write weird experimental stuff and enjoy it, for people who enjoy it. Others can write what they want, for people who enjoy it. If there weren’t “elitists” like me, there wouldn’t be poetry that I (and a lot of others) like, so we wouldn’t have anything to read. I don’t try and make people like my writing, and if you don’t then its fine. I dont like it when people tell me that I should like Billy Collins though.
Write and let write, to modify a cliche.
One thing I have in common with Mr. Locke- we both like William Blake (he was a poet prophet right?) And that might be the only thing I have in common with him! Well, I haven’t read the whole interview….
He’s a fascinating creature- seriously fascinating. I feel like I’m reading about almost a whole other species of mankind reading this interview.
I go now to check out Ross’s steven burts thing…
“I feel like I’m reading about almost a whole other species of mankind reading this interview”
i felt that way just reading the excerpt you’ve provided. i’m going to put on a football helmet if i read the whole thing, just in case my brain explodes.
“I feel like I’m reading about almost a whole other species of mankind reading this interview”
i felt that way just reading the excerpt you’ve provided. i’m going to put on a football helmet if i read the whole thing, just in case my brain explodes.
Ok, if you don’t/haven’t read a writer’s work, by what lack of reason should anyone assume he/she can comment on his – Duane’s – ideas about poetry??? I just completed his most recently published book – A Marble Nude Pualine Porghese with a Marble Apple in Her Marble Hand – and while readers need to know or discover some of his references, it is a fascinating collection of poetry. Duane has been at the forefront of what is real in poetry since the 1960s. Plus, he is the most widely published poet writing today. And all variety of ezines, not those published by academic profs, continue to discover and publish his poems. There are intriguing poems in this collection such as “Drunk Noah” –
“Noah was drunk, a dove had brought volka.
His naked sons replanted fig trees, rebuild prisons.
Eden had been defoliated and de-dragonized.
Noah’s wife tore off her muddy sackcloth….”
Dip into or read through the collection to uncover/discover real poetry in Duane’s writing. Stop taking pot-shots as his comments on poetics without reading his poetry.