9-4-08 (After Class) Week One Orientation

In class we discussed one of the poets I read, and a few that I liked that I had not read. I liked Juliana Sphar's poem (pg358 in Legitimate Dangers), which prof. Row told us was influenced by the Language Poets like Gertrude Stein. Poetry is such an interesting medium of art because it is both cerebral and lyrical, almost music and almost philosophy. I think Spahr’s poem embodies this type of light almost playfulness in language with her “and we…/and we…/and we…” line beginnings, it reminds me of a five year old telling a story. But the content of the poem is dense and a little to abstract for my liking. There is nothing concrete in the poem, which I assume is the point of something titled “localism or t/here”, but I like poetry where the grand concepts are entered through concrete detail.