Reading
In an interview with the BBC, James Schuyler recalls an early ambition to become a painter, but explains his satisfaction for becoming a poet instead: "You don't have to lug all that stuff around!"
Poetry can feel like a real something-out-of-nothing game, a 24/7 production strategy with little to no material overhead. Some of the most costly investments for the poet might be: learning to recognize that it's possible to write; making the decision to try and try often; dealing with the realities of committing to a career that usually offers little economic reward. How does a poet utilize the energies around them (sensational, structural, spiritual) as poem material? How does a poem signal the conditions in which it was created? And what does a poem offer in return? Maybe: insight, love, proof of life? Essentially: let's consider how visionaries spin confrontations with the immediate into an engagement with the timeless.
Readings for this meeting will include: Anselm Berrigan, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge, Marcella Durand, Fanny Howe, Sawako Nakayasu, James Schuyler, Lorenzo Thomas, Asiya Wadud, and others.