Steel Wagstaff
Trying to do good things for good reasons
Category: The Objectivists
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Three versions of an Objectivist Poetics
“Grandmother, have you ever looked a donkey in the eyes?” “I may have done, my dear boy, I don’t remember.” “In that case you haven’t, because otherwise you’d certainly remember. Grandmother, if donkeys could speak …” “Believe me, my dear boy, they wouldn’t and couldn’t say anything superhuman. They’d ask for good straw and clean…
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On the Anniversary of George Oppen’s Death
31 years ago today, the poet George Oppen died in the Idylwood Convalescent Home (now the Idylwood Care Center) in Sunnyvale, California. He was 76 years old, and had been suffering from dementia (Alzheimer’s disease) for several years before his death. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t think about George or his wife…
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Handwritten note on Lorine Niedecker
Lorine Niedecker Visited her in March (1970)—rumors: total recluse — something wrong with her? Mental breakdown?—ordinary cleaning woman in mental hospital—so, trepidation—fears groundless / “moment I walked in her door, she was opposite of recluse: outgoing, of good cheer, very lively. Time flew. Delightful afternoon—much in common with Al. —House only a few steps from…
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Essay on Lorine Niedecker for Edge Effects
A few weeks ago, I was invited to write a short essay for the Edge Effects blog. If you’re not already familiar with it, Edge Effects is an outstanding blog run by CHE [the Center for Culture, History, and Environment], a group that belongs to the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, which I’ve been…
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Expressing Gratitude
In 1934, when George Oppen was 26 years old, he published Discrete Series, a volume of his poetry. It included a preface from Ezra Pound, then living in Rapallo, Italy, which ended with these lines: “I salute a serious craftsman, a sensibility which is not every man’s sensibility and which has not been got out of any…
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The Objectivists: Carl Rakosi
I’ve spent the last two weeks getting serious about my dissertation. It’s been two years now since I successfully completed my prelim exams, and I have almost nothing to show for that time, dissertation-wise. It’s tremendously embarrassing, and even a little painful. By getting serious, I mean that I’ve been diving into the primary sources…
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How to Write a Letter to the Editor
I know I keep writing about Oppen and his letters, but I just can’t help it. Today I was typing up my notes from his mid-60s letters, and remembered a pretty tremendous letter he wrote to Lita Hornick, then the managing editor of Kulchur, in response to Kulchur‘s decision to print “Soirées,” a Felix Pollak poem…
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How To Write a “DARE” Letter
So there are “kids, don’t do drugs” lectures, and then there are “kids, don’t do drugs” lectures (like Tolstoy’s “Why Do Men Stupefy Themselves”–an absolute classic). I grew up Mormon, which meant that the Word of Wisdom (Section 89 of the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of LDS scripture) formed the bedrock of my attitude…
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“Night Scene” by George Oppen
The drunken man On an old pier In the Hudson River Tightening his throat, thrust his chin Forward and the light Caught his face His eyes still blind with drink Said, to my wife And to me — He must have been saying Again — Good bye Momma Good bye Poppa On an old pier
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George Oppen
I will try to keep this post brief, and being brief, it will certainly fail to capture the depth and breadth of my admiration for George Oppen as a poet and a human being, but I feel the need to essay–to make an attempt. I’ve just finished, this evening, a thorough reading of Oppen’s Selected…
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At Long Last…
I have an approved dissertation proposal! What’s its title, you ask? Get ready, because it’s really sexy. “Thinking with the things as they exist”: Ecocriticism and Objectivist Poetics. Yeah. A thrilling tour through what I’m calling an “Objectivist” poetics (the writing of George Oppen, Lorine Niedecker, Louis Zukofsky, Charles Reznikoff, Basil Bunting, William Carlos Williams,…
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Lorine Was Our Matchmaker: A Love Story
A picture of the finished rings. The ring Laurel made for me is on the left, the rings I made for her are on the right.
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On Seeing the One Thing Clearly
I’ve spent much of the past week trying with increasing desperation to write a dissertation proposal. It’s been the academic task that I’ve been ostensibly working on for nearly 18 months now, since I passed my prelims in early fall 2010. I don’t know what it has been so difficult for me to do, or…
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Lorine Niedecker and the 99%
One my favorite poets ever was Lorine Niedecker, a remarkable woman who spent most of her life living and writing on Blackhawk Island on the Rock River, just outside of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin. At her death, she left behind a little library (including her now infamous ‘Immortal Cupboard‘, which consisted of, among other things, her…