(Blog will not allow for original typography)
Selected Poems from Days
71
3/3/95
good god bob
you're the one
of course who
made loveable &
why the fuck
not in such
a tight span
these twists of
thinking specific
to an instant
commentary : creeley the bob, days in part a case study of thought's torsion, the short line, collisions & collusions possible, the shifts in direction, heavy staccato "good god bob" splat, to sweet assonance, one, loveable, fuck, such, the delight in the twists, a tight span, in instants, the lyric as collision chamber
74
3/11/95
i sing the body
eclectic uh defective
icing the bawdy
directive rodin to young
rilke "toujours travailler"
all words & no fray
makes yack a dull
"stable & precarious"
rose on licorice er
icarus' wings
commentary : talk in tongues, trane's sax honks, i sing as icing on the cake, a bellyfull, stammer, stutter, the play's the thing, of course work hard the too earnest though ugh, dad's leukemia woven in everywhere, my young son's mishearing heard it better as rose on licorice wings, and why not
77
4/1/95
her virtues i
know thus far
verbal which
what think you
when wind across
key principle
forms of distance
love the
reckless irritant settled
athwart the hips
commentary : days, in part, playing with an erotics of writer/reader relations; last line, the single word "athwart" definitely a whitman-clinker; loving throughout as irritant AND joy; the wind of saying, a poem being taken up and said
81
4/11/95
you put them
there & fix
their place in blocks
& in columns
as you will
& then they have
quite apart from
you relations
all their own
with which you are amused
commentary : a compositional practice, you do put them there by hand i know you do, the poem's existence in time, as it becomes necessarily strange to the writer too, possibly amusing, of necessity so as the poem disconnects from its immediacy of compositional inception, is initially placed & put, but then . . .
83
4/15/95
yes & then
a little less
two blue
& white striped
chairs & the means
of enumerating
sudden content
ment heart in
sists its history is now
& thus not history proper
commentary : rarely, but here, instance of actual immediate surroundings, two specific chairs, as the first line: often poems in the affirmative (though, "& then"), words broken being both: content, and content-ment; the heart moves in, thus insists, a different site of action than some will allow into "history proper"
84
4/15/95
slow to slogan
voracious to
veracity amen
to mendacity
flesh to pleasure
legs to legendary
costly to apostle
mesh to measure
& i wake up
next to you
commentary : by musical extension, made extant, a tent, rolls on & off the tongue, a fleshy pleasure, to be beside you, juxtaposition, awakening to & into that fact, flesh to pleasure, such words so
88
4/21/95
speaking the first
law of economy
you yawn song sweeps
upward & across water's
surface not contra which
would only be two dictions
but each point a hub
radiating infinite spokes
persons tense in shifting
pulse processional
commentary : redundant in e-space to point out, hell yes, more than two dictions, thematized older poetries fond of binary structurings, poems now portals multiply open, from any given point an infinity of directions, made so perhaps with some of the energy, energizing, galvanics of early Williams and later Olson's "projective verse" these too "in shifting/ pulse processional," parading by, the radiating, the pulsing, the transfer of energy, instant by instant, for you to say
126
6/22/95
monk's joy &
studied exuberant
wrong notes infinite
rhythmic insistence
exactly slapped silences
trane's quest question
chaotic divine emily's
compressed
from you (love)
crucially direct address
commentary : recaps sources & muses, quick riffs, monk the first, the joy of right-wrong, the infinite possibilities of rhythm attended to & heard precisely, not the yay-or-nay of binary dumb metrics stressed or un- (how damned inadequate!), to trane, to emily d, to "you" who must be there, otherwise how to address directly
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28 comments:
This post refers to the in-class assignment that asked students to “play” with the words: I know I want you
Students could add breaks wherever they wanted and could use homonyms for the words. This assignment revealed how hard it was for students to simply play. They were concerned with doing this the “right” way. One student, Rachael Nicholson wrote on the paper she turned in: *Sorry, I added more words. I don’t think I understood.
Another student, Shannon Kimmy wrote, “I have no idea what you want me to write & this form makes no sense to me! How are you supposed to write something without adding words?”
Most of the students could not “play” and could not resist the urge to “make sense.”
See Brittany Henderson’s piece for example:
I know
I want
You baby
You know that
This is true
As the sun
Must rise
I must
Have you
In my
LIFE.
Henderson falls back on the familiar aphorism: As sure as the sun rises… and sums everything up with a meaning-full, capitalized “life.”
Matt Etheredge came closer to the spirit of the assignment—on paper at least. I would love to know what he was thinking as he wrote this. Was it work? Was it an assignment or truly play?
Matthew Etheredge’s Piece
I want
I know
I want you know
You know I want
I know you want
You know I want
I know you
You want. I know
DANIEL WISE
hANK lAZZAR ASSIGNMENTM " I KNOW I WANT YOU"
129.
04/ 16/ 07 I KNOW I WANT YOU
I KNOW WANT I WANT
YOU KNOW I KNOW
YOU I WANT KNOW I
WANT YOU I KNOW I
WANT WANT WANT YOU
HAVE FUN WITH THIS ONE AND USE SIMPLE WORDS SUCH as ADJECTIVES, ADVERBS, PRONOUNS, AND ARTICLES TO FILL in the missing words or to maqke it make more sense.
Author: Hank Lazar is a professor/admin at the University of Alabama. He has been writting poetry for some three decades while on faculty there. He teaches a class a year and spends a lot of time talking to individuals and small classes in the English and Honors departments.
Basic Passage:47
01/07/95 either
my narrative
weathervane
is all
fucked up
or something
very bad
is about
to happen—
and then:
Correalation: Okay I know not everybody has taken a class that required the purchase of Days, much less spent two and a half hours in a conference room only shared by 11 other people. But I'm nto playing fair. In this, I see suspense, anticipation..."oh shit" I see. This is about bad feelings, anxiety, worry, knowing that one has laid a bad path for ones self. It means more to me because I'm thinking about my impending deployment.
Tragedy and Comedy dont really apply here.
Difficulty: At first the whole book was a puzzle to me until he came in the class and discussed it with us (this was at UA). This is over MY head. I dont know how Days could be inflicted on regular students. It is inflicted on Honors English Majors in 200 level classes with hesitation due caution, and the understanding that he is going to come in the class and talk about it for at least 50 minutes if not a seminar.
Author:
Hank Lazar is a professor at the University of Alabama. He has been writting poetry for some around thrity years
Basic Passage:
"good god bob
you're the one
of course who
made loveable"
Correlation:
Overall throughout these entire poems none of them are the same. Every single one of them are different, mainly for the fact that they are all different days. Although the all have the same writing style to them
Difficulties:
I had a ton of difficulties with this author. None of his stuff made a bit of sense to me and to be honest I still really dont understand the jumpyness of these poems
BACKGROUND: Hank Lazar is a professor at the University of Alabama. He has been writting poetry for around thirty years while on faculty there. He teaches a class a year in the English department.
TITLE: 81
BASIC PASSAGE:
you put them
there & fix
their place in blocks
& in columns
CORRELATION: I felt this has something to do with structure. Like everything has a place, and every person has the ability to "place" things where they want to. As stated, 'you put them, there and fix.' Maybe we control our own destiny. I think that blocks refers to time periods in your life and as you age you put those blocks, or time periods, on top of one another, like in a column.
DIFFICULTIES: I could be way off in what I felt the poem meant, but I had difficulty with all of them. I felt it was just a bunch of random thoughts, incomplete thoughts.
Author: Lazer got his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in English from the University of Virginia. He has been an English Professor at the University of Alabama since 1977.
Basic Passage: 81
you put them
there & fix
their place in blocks
& in columns
as you will
& then they have
quite apart from
you relations
all their own
with which you are amused
Correlation: I think this is talking about how no matter how much you put things the way you want them, they get messed up. Speaking of poetry specifically, you may intend a poem to mean or describe one thing, but the reader can twist its meaning and apply them to their own situation. I’m not sure if authors are ok with this practice, but it makes the poems easier to understand and more likely to be read if the reader can identify with a work. It goes along with the discovery and play thing. No matter how much you intend it to be exactly what you created, you really just have to make the thing and put it out there, let it discover itself and let others play with it and make it their own. Especially if it is new or different, people are going to try to make it fit a form so it is comfortable. People don’t often like to go outside their comfort zone, but at the same time, change and resistance to form and limitations are a part of human nature and what makes society evolve and progress.
Author: Hank Lazer attended Stanford University for his undergraduate degree in English and Virginia for his PhD. He has been a professor at Alabama since 1977.
Basic Passage: good god bob
you're the one
of course who
made loveable &
why the f***
not in such
a tight span
these twists of
thinking specific
to an instant
Correlation: I think the only way to correlate this passage is to look at the whole poem. he kind of starts out playful (good god bob) but turns serious when he uses the f word. Then we see conflict in his "tight spans of twists" as he thinks of a specific instance. The only thing i can make of this is how sometimes when you have conflict with someone over something specific, you first start out playful, then get really serious as you get into the conflict.
Comedy and tragedy do not apply.
Difficulty: There are so many difficulties with this man's writing. He jumps around too much. You have absolutely no clue as to what he's talking about, you almost have to take a shot in the dark and guess.
"Days"
Hank Lazer
A: A renown writer, Lazar is also a professor at the University of Alabama.
B: "All words and no fray makes yack a dull 'stable and precarious'"
C: Lazar does a lot of word play throughout this poem. This a mixture of letters, like we discussed in class, possible from something he heard and was thinking at the same time and it kind of ran together. I have actually experienced this unintentionally. Someone was talking to me on the phone and the TV was on, then someone asked me what that person said, I told them bits of what that person said and what I had heard on TV without even noticing it.
D: I don't see any signs of tragedy or comedy.
Difficulties: Yeah I didn't understand a single thing in this poem.
title: speaking the first
biography: hank lazar is a professor at Alabama. his book of poetry new spirit was nominated for the pulitzer prize. he has published twelve books of poetry in all. he has been involved in several poetry/musical collaborations. his work tends to be without organizational boundaries and is very abstract.
basic passage
88
4/21/95
speaking the first
law of economy
you yawn song sweeps
upward & across water's
surface not contra which
would only be two dictions
but each point a hub
radiating infinite spokes
persons tense in shifting
pulse processional
correlation:
i suppose that instead of trying to get a logical point across,Lazar throws ideas, interesting word pictures, and interesting word combinations together to form some sort of abstract piece of art. Like an abstract painting, his work may be nonsensical or even strange but the reader or observer can get from it what they will. i took his meaning to be in this poem that he is expressing his desire to get away from scientific laws and such ..."the first law of economy." His desire is for art which does not have defined laws and structure like a ssong sweeping over the water.
difficulties
his poetry is so different than anything else ive heard i think a lot of the things he says may go over my head
Intro to Author:
Hank Lazer is an administrator/professor at the University of Alabama. He teaches one class per year at there, where he’s been a professor since 1977. Lazur completed his undergraduate work at Stanford University & received his Masters & Doctorate degrees from the University of Virginia. He has been writing poetry for about thirty years, of which 12 books have been published.
Basic Passage:
81
you put them
there & fix
their place in blocks
& in columns
as you will
& then they have
quite apart from
you relations
all their own
with which you are amused
Correlation:
The point to this particular poem is that everything in life has its place, but in living life it gets displaced. No matter how had one tries to keep order, there are just some things that can’t be controlled. This poem is almost an inside joke to Lazer because he writes about life, but his poems seem all jumbled & out of order, much like life itself…perhaps his point? Perhaps his playing with his personal idea of the randomness of life?
Difficulties:
Obviously, the form in which Lazer writes gives the reader some difficulty, if not confusion. To play devil’s advocate for a moment, one might say Lazer’s work could resemble the words of a schizophrenic – what with the disorderly form & randomness of topic & word choice. Without knowing the goings-on in Lazer’s life it would be a difficult to understand his work due to lack of context from which he pulls the material for many of his poems.
Comment on k-dub's post:
I agree with this response to the extent that author's put their work out there with the intent of having people understand their meaning & thoughts behind a work, but on the other hand, authors, songwriters, artists have to create for themselves & know what is behind their creation & give others the liberty to take from it what they wish & are able.
Author: Hank Lazer
Lazer has published 12 books of poetry. He has taught at The University of Alabama since 1977. He is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs.
Basic Passage: 74
i sing the body
eclectic uh defectice
icing the bawdy
directive rodin to young
rilke "toujours travailler"
all words & no fray
makes yake a dull
"stable & precarious"
rose on licorice er
icarus' wings
Correlation: He doesn't have order to his poetry, he tries to stay true to life. He writes down all the different stuff he hears. He's very observational and random.
Difficulties: I didn't understand his poetry. Since he doesn't have any order it's very hard to understand.
I agree with Creole. I think he does just throw random ideas and different word combinations together to form his abstract poetry.
Hank Lazar
"Play some Jazz!"
Author:
Hank Lazar is a professor at the University of Alabama. He has published 12 books of poetry and he was 42 when he published his first book.
Passage:
84
4/15/95
slow to slogan
voracious to
veracity amen
to mendacity
flesh to pleasure
legs to legendary
costly to apostle
mesh to measure
& i wake up
next to you
Correlation:
Im going to take Lazar's advice when he said not to get all upset if you "don't get it." But he said to listen to it like listening to music, all of the different beats/tempos. When reading his poems in class I didn't really get anything from it, but when I heard him reading it, it did sound like a jazz piece to me. It's hard to explain, but I enjoyed it. His poems are a play on words, very observational,and very random.
Diff.
I had a ton of difficulties with his poems. But I did like his style. I will remember him because his work was so different and it just stands out.
I agree with Maggaly0326. His poems do seem like an inside joke that only he understands. We could spend all the time in the world trying to "analyze" his poems, but the way his style is, its difficult.
"Relaxin'" Dr. Hank Lazer is an administrator at U of A and in his spare time he is a poet, with many books of poetry published. A very good speaker of his own poetry, he says he looks for many ways to invent new ways of writing poetry. BASIC PASSAGE: "two blue and white striped chairs & the means of enumerating content ment heart". CORRELATION: This descrition paint a portrait in my mind of the two blue and white striped deck chairs, on a deck over the sand, by the ocean, with a nice, salty wind blowing. This phrase is a very relaxing sounding/looking poem with relaxation, seeming to be, at the core of this poem-hearts' content ment. DIFFICULTIES: Most of Dr. Lazers' poems for me, where hard reading until hearing him in person, then it was a bit easier to read the poems. The tragedy in the poem I have chosen is if we did not take the time to picture what it is that Dr. Lazer seems to be trying to convey with this poem. The comedy is the ease with which he does lyrically write/paint this picture for us. To turn tragedy into comedy is done by taking the time to 'read' the poems and 'see' what they are saying.
Author: Hank Lazer is a professor and administrator at the University of Alabama. He has been writing since the age of 19, but did not publish his first book until the age of 42. To date he has published twelve book including the most recent “The New Spirit” which was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2005. Though Lazer is a brilliant poet he has never really made any money doing what he loves, he said himself that form an early age he thought he would have a career in mathematics. He completed his undergraduate work at Stanford University & received his masters & Doctorate degrees from the University of Virginia. Lazer says “Poetry is a love I can’t imagine life without.”
Basic Passage:
Voracious to
Veracity amen
To mendacity
Flesh to pleasure
Legs to legendary
Costly to apostle
& I wake up
Next to you
Correlation: Yes Lazers work can be difficult, but after hearing him read, the poetry makes much more sense. His poems aren’t about “do I get it” they are about feeling the work. Lazer describes his work as constructive and thought he began writing descriptive imagery all those years ago, I think that now he is not so much trying to construct an image but to evoke a feeling. The poetry it self has a strange form, something out of the ordinary, so immediately you’re outside of the norm when reading it. Some lines don’t make sense, some words seem not even to be real words, but by listening to the words, just as you’d listen to music, the work can create a sense of love and sensuality like the passage I have chosen. The words themselves are pleasurable to say, the way they roll off the tongue. Flesh, pleasure, legendary, legs; these words all give an idea of sensuality or sexuality, a feeling of intimacy perhaps. “And I wake up next to you,” this line gives me a sense of happiness as though someone posses all these qualities which may be something one might have only dreamed of, but still they wake up and it is real. Lazers works all create a feeling for me and the feeling I get from it may not be the same feeling someone else gets, but I think that’s part of the beauty of it, it forces you to think outside the box of what you already know. Maybe it causes you question spirituality or think about what it is that he may have experienced that provoked such feelings of pain, and I think this is what he is trying to achieve, not to write something that you may necessarily understand but to write something that makes you think.
I don't agree with Maggaly0326. There is a method to the madness. You just have to look at it from a different point of view. He is a modern poet, this isn't the same old stuff that many of us are used to reading so you cant read it the same way and expect to get anything out of it.
Author: Hank Lazer
Lazer currently works with the University of Alabama where he has taught and done administrative work since 1977. He also has published 12 books of poetry, the most recent being THE NEW SPIRIT.
Basic Passage:
74
3/11/95 i sing the body
eclectic uh defective
icing the bawdy
directive rodin to young
rilke "toujours travail
all words and no fray
makes yack a dull
"stable & precarious"
rose on licorice er
icarus' wings
commentary: talk in tounge's, trane's sax honks, i sing as icing on the cake, a bellyfull, stammer,stutter, the play's the thing, of course work hard the too earnest thoughh ugh, dad's leukemia woven in everywhere, my young son's mishearing heard it better as rose on licorice wings, and why not
correlation:
I believe this piece illustrates how people these days are preoccupied with so many things all at the same time. This makes it easy to mix things up. I know that I always have a million things going on and can't remember everything. I also find it hard to give my complete attention to one thing. For example, if I'm talking to someone I usually give short answers because I'm thinking about something completely different.
Difficulty:
I found this poetry to be very unusual which I'm sure is the point.
Tragedy/Comedy: I'm not sure if this really applies.
I agree with Creole. I believe his works are alot like abstract art. One person could read it and get a completely different meaning than somebody else. I believe this to be true with all aspects of life. People are going to see what they want and not necessarily what is there.
I agree with taytay's interpretation of 81, in that it is about structure, and it is about organization. Its seems to fit several models along this line, not limited to but including:
puzzles...lack of flexibility in schedules...the daily rat race of wage slavery in our dog eat dog economy...observations about things that have been tidyed up in almost an Adrian Monk sort of tidy.
Author: Hank Lazar is currently employed at the University of Alabama as a professor. He studied at Stanford University and earned a PhD in English at Virginia. He is a renowned writer who has written for about thirty years.
Basic Passage: good god bob
you're the one
of course who
made loveable &
why the f***
not in such
a tight span
these twists of
thinking specific
to an instant
Correlation: I see many things in the few lines that make up this poem. First is the different, random, and unexpected nature of the poem. Then the part that sticks out is the passing moments in time and the picking of moments or instants to write about. "These twist of thinking specific to an instant" brings to mind the poem "Paradise Lost" in the way that in an instant there is an up rising and the angels are cast out of heaven. The twist of the story is that the term evil is twisted and the point of view is from the evil side. This also holds in "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell" where good and evil are reversed.
Difficulties: I don't see it as difficult or easy. I see that you can take what you want from it and it could be different for each person. If you look at the overall writing then it will not make any sense at all.
It seems that Dr. Lazers' poetry equally repelled and drew us in. It was unique to me in that we got to hear him actually read and explain his poetry, and that was a slight help for me. Alternately, his very modern, and odd way of writing threw me off even after hearing him. Perhaps I do not want to be tasked that hard when reading poetry!
I am commenting on Sasuke's post. I think the reason I had problems with this poem is I was just looking at the overall words like you said. In hindsight I kind of see my own point of view.
i tentatively agree with vcguitarist's post. I understand the whole perspective of the abstract artist's writing being valid even if it is only an inside joke or if the meaning is different for everyone, but i think there is a breaking point and that Lazer is right on top of it. I thought that the purpose for writing is so that others understand what you're saying. If no one can understand it, how can we call it good writing?
In class, someone said that artist can do what they want. I think this is very true. An artist is at liberty to do whatever they want, in this case, Lazer can write however way he wants to and call it poetry. I think his poems are fun. Like his incomplete thoughts fun together but on different lines. I wouldn't mind reading the book Days.
Hank Lazer teaches and does administrative work at the University of Alabama. He has been doing this since 1977. Lazer uses a very different style of writing. He likes to "play" with the words and create new meanings. Lazer has published twenty-nine books so far.
Passage:
"slow to slogan
voracious to
veracity amen
to mendacity
flesh to pleasure
lega to legendary
costly to apostle
mesh to measure
& I wake up
next to you"
Correlation: We discussed in class how this poem is considered to be a love poem. It is supposed to be based in the spring time. And being spring time it is hot and people tend to reveal more skin and take off clothes more often. The word "flesh" in the poem is an example of revealing your body to one. "Costly" is another word, because some of your actions may cost you later down the road. And the last two lines symbolize waking up next to someone after you have spent the night with them.
Difficulties: His poems are very hard to interpret when he plays with the words and changes all the meanings. You have to be in his head and know what he is thinking in order to get the exact meaning out of the poem that he was trying to stress while writing it.
I agree with natalie mena. His works are very abstract. We don't have to dwell over the poem for days searching for the correct meaning that the author is portraying. As long as we create our own meaning from a different point of view that is helpful to us, then we are getting something out of the poem that relates to us. People always look at situations in completely two different ways.
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