Thursday, February 05, 2009

i'll be a rock&roll bitch for you

glory be, guess i'm on a bowie kick tonight. sure it's because of the rain but also today i read this interview with poet abraham smith today at lunch and i dig smith's goofy exuberance such as this piece about smith's un-habits of non-punctuation:

JMW: What's been your inclination to abandon punctuation?

AS: didnt ever use it.. was eaten alive in workshops in mfa for
not using it.. still dont use it much.. would like to get into
ellipses in the future.. perhaps parrot zb. herbert the great
polish poet by throwing in some dashes.. anyways.. a gruff olde
famoso poet came down to bama whilst i was in mfa..
he told me i wrote like a polish poet in the 60s and 70s
(which is true, i do, in a way) .. he went on to say..
glowering at me thru his owl sized glasses.. his squalid talons
his inkstained shirt.. that I'd never get a poem published
ever.. period.. all life long.. and that not punctuating was.. partially.. why..
anyways.. tho i am fond of rattling like a pressure cooker..
tho i am prone to the on and on.. ive also felt a desire to
get small.. give me a half a hands worth of birch bark
and let me write out all of my cares there.. just this
feeling that i havent had anything to say.. just yet.. worth
making measured, balanced, gymnast flit tuck worthy...
no caps really either.. no need of that watertower today.. i like
what don revell said he said let a poem stumble to rest..

i'd think smith's style owes more to the exuberance and ironic ecstasies of louis-ferdinand celine than zbigniew herbert. but why quibble because the interview is full of delights that had me laughing out loud.

and it is exuberance and ecstasy that ties my reading to bowie. for check out this ziggy stardust era performance of 'moonage daydream', another old favorite of mine. what i really dig is the shots of the audience positively transported by bowie and mick ronson. rock&roll is seriously timeless.



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