The Bodies Remains Return To Us by Jennifer K Dick on Poetry in a Pandemic

NOW ONLINE: “Of Tradition & Experiment XIV: The Bodies’ Remains Return to Us (Poetic Migration in the Time of a Pandemic” at Academia.edu with permission of editor David Caddy  AND IN PRINT in Tears in the Fence, (UK literary magazine), n° 72, Autumn 2020 issue: 

Abstract:
In this essay which opens: 

    "To what extent do place and time determine a poet?
      To what extent do plague and time determine a poet?"

the issues of value during a period of mass loss, of motivation to write, and rituals of remembrance are explored. The text vacillates between critical prose readings of recent poets, political poetics reflections on pandemics and migrations due to attempts to escape contamination, and more poetry-like writing emerging from my Spring 2020 journals. Here, as I read others, I interrogate my own continuation and writing during this time of limbo and loss, in an ambiance of latent fear. Only one of the poets I speak of, Laura Mullen, is directly addressing Covid-19. Other works I examine were published before this illness appeared, but these poems, thoughts, and lines are resonant and pertinent to these times—and in particular to current issues of grief, absence, mourning. This explains the large reliance on my reading of Ghost Of by Diana Khoi Nguyen (Omnidawn, 2018).

Read the article / download as member from Academia.edu site: Click HERE

Or Purchase a PRINT COPY of TITF N°72 or SUBSCRIBE by Clicking THIS LINK HERE

New Poems in Print by Jennifer K Dick in Tears in the Fence and The Bastille

Getting the poems to roll out of the house and into the world is not always easy. We poets tend to obsess and revise and hold tight to the shards of language we have collected onto our pages. But out into the world they must, and with such joy it is I have had the pleasure of seeing a few of my poems land in great places this fall. And one even pictured above, left, on the wall of Le Chat Noir last week thanks to The Bastille!

Photo: Sabine Dundure Photography

In fact, I am thrilled to be part of the newest issue of THE BASTILLE. Issue n°4 is replete with exciting writing and amazing graphics and a lovely gallery of great photos by the Spoken Word in house photographer. You can pick up issues on their website via Paypal or get a copy any Monday, Weds night at Spoken Word Readings!  This issue had a theme: "The Many Faces of Jesse" and I loved seeing my Jesse James timetravel machine CERN poem alongside so many other versions of Jesse's!

First off, THANK you to the fabulous editors and lay out masters at TEARS IN THE FENCE in the UK--David Caddy and Westrow Cooper. It was also great to see my poems next to those of a great friend and fabulous author Greg Bachar. My poems CERN 51, CERN 52, CERN 54, CERN 56, CERN 67,  "Microcosms" and "There is something about" appear in Tears in The Fence, n° 64, September 2016, on pages 94-97. Go to https://tearsinthefence.com/ to subscribe/order a copy. Also consider checking in with them on their FB group page, where you will see I am also named as a columnist--and I am planning on getting the next column in for issue 65 soon!

 

As they tell you, in this issue: We have poetry, fiction and translations from Jeremy Reed, Jim Burns, John Welch, John Freeman, Sally Dutton, Chris Hall, Michael Henry, Beth Davyson, Kinga Tóth, Paul Kareem Tayyar, D. I., Lydia Unsworth, David Pollard, Mike Duggan, Jeff Hilson, Sheila Mannix, I.S. Rowley, Richard Foreman, Jay Ramsay, Alison Winch, Andrew Taylor, Alan Baker, Sophie Herxheimer, L. Kiew, Ric Hool, S.J. Litherland, Rachael Clyne, Andrew Shelley, Tom Cowin, Morag Kiziewicz, Matt Bryden, Jessica Mookherjee, John Phillips, Ian Brinton & Michael Grant trans. Mallarmé, Terence J. Dooley trans. Mario Martin Giljó, Greg Bachar, Jennifer K. Dick, Matthew Carbery, Mark Goodwin, Aidan Semmens, Peter Dent, Sarah Cave, Julie Irigaray and Maria Isokova Bennett. The critical section features John Freeman on Jim Burns: Poet as Witness, Andrew Henon on Timeless Man: Sven Berlin, Mary Woodward on Rosemary Tonks & Veronica Forrest-Thomson, Jeremy Reed on John Wieners, Norman Jope on Chris McCabe, Marsha de la O in conversation with John Brantingham, Neil Leadbeater on Jeremy Hilton, Nancy Gaffield on Geraldine Monk, Lesley Saunders on Alice Miller, Belinda Cooke on Carole Satyamurti, Steve Spence on Dear World and Everyone in it David Caddy on Andrew Lees’ Mentored by a Madman, Nigel Wood & Alan Halsey, Duncan Mackay on E.E. Cummings
, Notes on Contributors, and Ian Brinton’s Afterword.

It was also lovely to share in the launch reading evening at Spoken Word for the new issue--and to see the surprised faces of the designer, editors and support authors (Bruce Edward Sherfield at the left, Vincent Chabany-Douarre in middle and Troy Yorke, pictured on right) as the issue was unveiled: 

Photo: Sabine Dundure Photography

 

JUST OUT: Tears in the Fence 62 with Of Tradition and Experiment XII

It is so lovely to be a part of the continued tradition of the UK

magazine run by David Caddy called Tears in the Fence. Their most recent issue--NUMER 62!--is now out and ready for order from http://tearsinthefence.com/pay-it-forward

My article "Of Tradition and Experiment XII: On Beauty and Reading" (pp109-117) is a personal exploration of what draws me to a poem: music, vision, thought/perspective. It is a kind of conversational retrospective of my reading experiences with poetry, with short close reads and thoughts on my favorite poems and authors, going from John Donne, Thomas Hood, Robert Frost, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Carole Maso, Anne Carson and Michael Palmer to Myung Mi Kim, with a brief tip of the hat to Erin Mouré, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Nathanial Mackey, N. NourbeSe Philip and Craig Santos Perez.

To give you a sense of the momvent of my essay, in it I write these following snippets: 

"The mind leaps in beauty and is ensnared. A poem combines music, vision and thought and, in so doing, pierces the body...escaping its enclosure within a single time or moment as it opens to something many call universal." (p9)

"It is for the love of the music that I first read any poem..." (p111)

"To seek refuge in language, in poetry, as a peripheral space, a space not like and also not unlike society..." (p114)

"Of course, how does one define beauty? For me, the light of the lines and spaces in [Michael] Palmer combine with a kind of texture in the meaning, and that combination is beauty, hard and cold, warm and light at times. There is also something ineffable, fragile in a thing of beauty, and Palmer's poems capture that..." (p115)

"Many of the authors like the ones I find I am now reading and am excited about reading appear to be attempting to recalibrate the self within a sense of the nation (or nations) and its history." (p116)

Here is the announcemnt and information CC'd from the TITF wordpress blog about the most recent issue so that you can order your own, thus keep the magazine alive. It is FULL of amazing poetry and closes with a long section devoted to book reviews and reflections on poetry and poetics today.

Tears in the Fence 62 is now available from http://tearsinthefence.com/pay-it-forward and features poetry, fiction and essays from Simon Smith, Nancy Gaffield, Patricia Debney, Andy Fletcher, Michael Farrell, John Freeman, Afric McGlinchey, Anamaria Crowe Serrano, Anamaria Crowe Serrano & Robert Sheppard, Sarah Connor, Samuel Rogers, Rose Alana Frith, Michael Grant, Charles Hadfield, Mike Duggan, Dorothy Lehane, Vicki Husband, Hilda Sheehan, Andrew Darlington, David Miller, Karl O’Hanlon, Amy McCauley, Rupert Loydell & Daniel Y Harris, Sam Smith, Rodney Wood, David Greenslade, Lesley Burt, L.Kiew, Graheme Barrasford Young, Andrew Lees, Michael Henry, James Bell, Rhys Trimble, Sophie McKeand, Haley Jenkins, Alexandra Sashe-Seekirchner, Richard Thomas, Alec Taylor and Steve Spence.

The critical section consists of David Caddy’s Editorial, Anthony Barnett’s Antonym, Jennifer K. Dick’s Of Tradition & Experiment XII, Alan Munton on Steve Spence, Andrew Duncan on Kevin Nolan’s Loving Little Orlick, David Caddy on Gillian White’s Lyric Shame, Robert Vas Dias on Jackson Mac Low, Laurie Duggan on Alan Halsey, Chris McCabe on Reading Barry MacSweeney, Mandy Pannett on Angela Gardner, Mary Woodward, Ric Hool on Ian Davidson, William Bonar, Steve Spence on John Hartley Williams, Linda Benninghoff on Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability, Notes On Contributors
and Ian Brinton’s Afterword.

Jeff Hilson, Richard Makin and Jennifer K Dick at Tears in the Fence Festival 2014 on What is Experimental Writing in the 21st Century?

New video now up on Youtube of the Oct 2014 "On Tradition and Experiment" round table talk I lead with Jeff Hilson and Richard Makin from the Tears in the Fence Poetry Festival organized by David Caddy and the magazine Tears in the Fence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vfYKipPhI0

We ask questions like what is our "reponsibility" to tradition, in particular, in the case of Jeff Hilson's topic, to the tradition of forms like the sonnet? What is the relationship between alchemy and experimental procedures as authors and readers? On a more general note, so what is the new? What is tradition or experiment? How did we get to now? What are the limits of language? How are young people writing today inheriting from traditions and what techniques and perspectives are they bringing to the table? Why can we see awkwardness in writing as compelling? Underlying this are the unasked questions, the hinted at query about what space exists today for transformation, opacity, transparency, inspiration, intention, creation, or hybritdity in the new writing and writers of today? Are we, like alchemists, "journeymen of the soul"? Or something far less grandiose?

Jeff Hilson brings in issues on the sonnet and  perspectives on whether explorations of the sonnet can change, sharing some his own techniques as explored in his book In The Assarts (Veer Books, UK, 2010 ).

Richard Makin shares a talk on alchemy that in many ways might stand as a kind of metaphor on transformation. Makin speaks of this hybrid of art and science, of conversion, of transformation, from the dull to the luminous.  Makin also opens up a space for reflection on indeterminateness in reading (and perception), thus the space for reception in the making of art via this talk. For more on Makin's own work, check out his dense poetic novels Dwelling (Reality Street, 2011) or Mourning (Equus Press, 2015--read an excerpt at https://equuspress.wordpress.com/2015/02/09/mourning-2/ )

Jennifer K Dick looks back over the convoluted literary trends of tradition and experiment in the American cannon, the interweavings, the redefinitions, the limits of the obsession with the new and yet the sense that perhaps a new is still just about to arrive once more. Her reflections are based on a series of articles published in Tears in the Fence over the past 5 years.

Let me know what your thoughts are on this talk and our topics! Enjoy! --Jen

Forthcoming Appearances at Tears in The Fence festival and Reading in London: Hey UK here I come!

October is the perfect month to head to the UK--as I am eternally reminded of Dylan Thomas' poem "Especially when the October Wind" which begins:

 Especially when the October wind
 With frosty fingers punishes my hair,
 Caught by the crabbing sun I walk on fire
 And cast a shadow crab upon the land,(...)

And so I am off to partake in two UK events:

I) 24-26 October 2014: The festivities at the TEARS IN THE FENCE festival in Stourpaine, Dorset starting Friday evening then going all day long from 24-26 October: see http://tearsinthefence.com/festival/ for info, such as the Saturday events starting at 10am with readings by Featured poets: John Freeman, Lucy Hamilton, and Peter Hughes, A talk by Ian Brinton afternoon readings by Featured poets: Dorothy Lehane, Steve Spence, and Pansy Maurer-Alvarez, A talk by Anthony Barnett then our Round Table: 25 Oct Round Table at 5pm: I will be chairing a round table debate (with Jennifer K Dick, Richard Makin and Jeff Hill) on the theme of my regular TITF column "OF TRADITION AND EXPERIMENT" (see below a paragraph with details on that event). 26 Oct Reading: I will be reading some new work, some of which appeared in a recent TITF issue, and perhaps a touch of the old as well. I am thrilled to be reading with many exciting poets, including: Featured poets: (myself Jennifer K Dick, with) Carrie Etter, Cora Greenhill, and Richard Makin as well as those dubbed "Open readings" such as by: David Andrew, Andrew Henon, Ric Hool, Morag Kiziewicz, Mandy Pannett, and Aidan Semmens. So many poets I love, and a few I will have the pleasure of discovering (such as Ric Hool!) This festival will also be a BOOK FAIR--so come with your moolah and a cart for books you want to drag home!

II) 30 Oct 2014 at 7:30pm: READING at The Apple Tree in London (as the "opening act" I

keep saying to friends) with the amazing authors Eleni Sikelianos and Laird Hunt. Series run by UK poets Jeff Hilson + Sean Bonney. AT: Xing the Line: The Apple Tree, 45 Mount Pleasant, Clerkenwell WC1X 2AE. Entry fee £5 or £3. To keep up on the event, check out the Xing the Line FB group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/140494812663758/

Info on the Round Table event for Tears in the Fence:

Round Table: Of Tradition and Experiment. To celebrate 30 years of Tears in the Fence a magazine featuring international authors writing in a diverse range of aesthetic and formal styles, join us at 5pm on Oct 25th in Stourpaine, Dorset, UK for this round table discussion on issues of tradition and “avant-gardism” today. Authors Jennifer K Dick, Richard Makin and Jeff Hilson will present, dialogue and discuss some of their issues as authors, publishers and readers with tradition and experiment as well as comment on how they see this issue both on a national (UK) level and on an international scale. Topics will include literary homage, formal choice and language use. We will close with a debate on the new newness—what we think is or isn’t just over the literary horizon! Participants are invited to read the article in issue 60 of Tears in the Fence as an amuse-bouche prepping for the discussion. We hope you will all participate in this lively debate and round table discussion!!!