a couple of days ago i was reading the poems of tom fisher published in lvng. last spring i had downloaded and printed up all the pdfs of the journal. anyway, i liked enough of fisher, a poet new to me, that i googled him to see if i could find any more of his work. and i discovered thru a bio published at the website of the journal delmar that fisher wrote his dissertation on poets who abandoned poetry, like oppen, like (riding) jackson.

it would be an interesting read. i know of only two poets, mark young and james denboer who both did not write poems for over 20 years. i've not asked but i wonder during that era of silence did they not read poetry too?

the idea of giving up writing is part of being a writer. despair and frustration seem to be part of the package, along with pleasure, elation and ecstasy. i've said outloud on another blog that i think poetry is a religious calling. i do not mean by that any sectarian bullshit. i'm not a religious person. however, i'm an atheist that admits to the supernatural, or supernatural wonder. I dig the mysteries of living and the universe we all inhabit. poetry for me is a way to conduct my life, in whatever awkward fashion I have, not as a narcissist but as one who lives by and thru words, in this short span of living.

there is no fame in it, or if there is we'll all be long dead to enjoy it. so fuck it. poetry is eternal, yes, but it is also for the here-and-now. that is how I read, anyway, whether the text is by catullus or charles olson, the poems live within my reading and are therefore contemporary.

but should a poet abandon poetry. shit, that is up to the individual. and from the examples of oppen and (riding) jackson the reasons for it are as strange and unique as their verses. I despair all the fucking time. all the fucking time. no sense of drama here, for we all, as poets, know it. perhaps we are writing in a void. but this is the life I have, and as I want to spend it with my family, I also want to spend it in language, whatever my abilities allow me to. i'm struggling, as poets we all are struggling with it. I think, and hope that language and a few amigos in the art is enough.

* * *
next up, a review of a fave japanese horror flick matango.