IMPORTANT POETRY

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10540.php

the 3rd vol of the tremendous compilation, poems for the millenium, will be released this month, dec 29th. this volume seems to be designed as an argument for a "new romanticism" in the new millenium. it traces a line from the 19th century to the present in various writings & writers. i'm thinking this is kind of an argument for another strain of modernism, an argument the art historians at october(krauss, bois, foster, etc)have already made by tracing & connecting different painters.
whatever the validity of the argument, this volume contains a LOT of great writing(as the other volumes also do)& they represent a monumental undertaking by some of the great non-standard, non-canonical thinkers/poets of this new century.
i remember when vol 2 came out. i went to a reading at a small bookstore on college ave. i was at the nyingma institute at the time. shauna carson came w/me. all the big names were there. carl rakosi was there(well past 90yo), a man who had met pound, personally knew oppen & zukofsky. he read something that brought tears. michael mcclure was there. he read duncan's "after a long illness:"

no faculty not ill at ease
let us
begin where i must

from the failure of systems


mcclure was everything i'd come to expect from a poet(as rakosi was not): pomous, very self-aware, glib. he was a handsome guy too, even then(well past his physical prime). he reminded me of the pictures i'd seen of philip's acquaintance, the composer ned rorem. he read duncan's poem beautifully, carefully. he treated the poem w/justified reverence.

each of the poems in these volumes are simply messages from strangers who have something very important to tell us. we need to do something equally important: listen.