University of Arizona Poetry Center

IMPLEMENTING IMAGE- J: CONCEPT AS PARTICLE

1. What is conceptual poetry?

A can of call and response. An unfortunate noun modified by an adjective. What poets are NOT conceptual? It makes me ambient. Quagmire out side of text. For example, Kathleen Fraser’s essay, on “Partial Local Coherence” My life is a highly conceptual work. Predicated on the desanctification of the aesthetic object. Hejinian’s poems, often organized around grammatical structures. Idea has preference. Bernadette Mayer— how can Utopia not be conceptual? It began with Acconci and Mayer’s 0-9. Foulipo (Spahr & Young's piece) was conceptual. Given Dworkin’s definition I’ll have to change my bio note. Language beyond born.

2. Can poetry be non-expressive?

Of? Hannah Weiner, talking to Bob Dylan, on her bed. Like a coconut head. I am interested in the flatness preceding such a line. No. This depends more on the reader than the poem. (space intentionally left blank). Headlights and pet rocks are expressive. If only the “no” at its heart.

3. Is there such a thing as a “direct presentation of language”?

All the time. A list of phonemes. I can’t think of such a thing. You’re reading this aren’t you? Dictionaries. Signage. A death sentence. As I sleep — Rosmarie Waldrop’s memoir of meeting Edmond Jabes whispered into my ears. The neo-conceptualists are earnestly twisting. Indeed fraught with double answers and no answers. Yeast vexes best porn prince. Language is always already a translation.

4. Intellect rather than emotion?

Queequeg rather than Ahab! I can’t separate the repressed. Answers with no container. Two extremes: intellect follows delusion bleeds. Two terminological mistakes that confuse and astound me. Disingenuous division. Distinction as hypothesis, not actuality. I’m only interested in both/and Trix.

5. Dismantle this line-drawing

Draw
wing

No. “A point is that which has no part”- Euclid’s first definition. Actually Romanticism allergy is based on a radical political impetus. Draw this dis-mantle line. Removing first one line, then another, on the model of the “Erased De Kooning Drawing.” The subject-verb- direct axis of/to past present and future.

6. What is the purpose of form and formlessness?

To form a study group. Dialectical envy. To question assumptions like a square-circle. Breathing mimics this. Self assertion. The unwritten poem. Black hole. It’s a good day for an existential crisis. So as meaning shifts so do intentions and words are things. Words are not things. According to Aleister Crowley, to re-charge the dark demons that rule fully half the world. Isn’t that a theological question? To articulate the possibility of infinity. All poems have form.

7. Distinguish between procedural and conceptual

One makes you see the handwashing. The other makes you question the idea of a hand. Conceptual is all desire. According to this procedure, I am behaving like a smartass (that was my concept). What you make is where you live. Procedural as one kind of conceptual. Procedural refers to the conscious, even if it is unconscious, makes no claim to “objectivity”. Every poem has a procedure. A,B,C,D,E. . . / Alphabet. Temporal distinction.

8. What formal restraints do you practice every day?

Capitalism, driving, tunnels, metro cards. Shuddering and breaking into a sweat. Try not to judge. I touch only 5-10 tomatoes a day. Watering incarnate laundry-self. Job, food, shoes, clothing, language. To write while one son naps. Time is my constraint.

9. What is the responsibility of the writer?

To be the witness of a buried world. Well I hope you’re well, and. . . as the hoola-hooper hoops. To stop the Republicans from stealing the next election. To unleash the “inarticulable” “the/a truth” in others. Liberation. To fight AIDS through direct political action. To respond. The self doesn’t have to win. Be awake.

10. Why are women virtually excluded from the UBU web anthology?: http://www.ubu.com/concept/

Foolishness. I’d say this is the most important question. Does UBU skew towards men? Mangle, Mill, Bucket, male revisionist history? Might have something to do with “Avante Guard” being a military term. Gender being another unfortunate noun. Why write women out? Mayer, Retallack, Bergvall, Osman, Spahr, Mullen. For the same reason the hostility toward a diversity course requirement at my University is not directed toward “race and ethnic studies” but toward “gender studies.” Ties into so many other kinds of nefarious discrediting. Who the fuck thinks it’s ok?. Men are much more attached to clubs Dewflap. One might ask why the list is so poozle-white. There were no women in the “conceptual” age.

Notes:

1. Grateful acknowledgement to the following writers who performed this piece at the Symposium:

(in order of reading)

1. Tenney Nathanson
2. Bonnie Jean Michalski
3. Robert Fitterman
4. Lisa Bowden
5. Gwendolyn Alley
6. Tenney Nathanson
7. Karla Kelsey
8. Charles Alexander
9. Barbara Henning
10. Vanessa Place

2. Grateful acknowledgement of the more than fifty writers who wrote responses to the survey. I chose to have respondents remain anonymous, because some would have been otherwise silenced. Respondents are welcome to identify themselves, as some have on various blogs, etc.

Laynie Browne