Spontaneous Poetics – 135 (Gertrude Stein)

September 16, 2013admin

File:Félix Valloton, Portrait of Gertrude Stein, 1907.jpg

[Gertrude Stein – Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Felix Valloton (1907)]  

Student: Where do you think that (Gertrude) Stein figures into this lineage of voices that you’ve presented to us from (Walt) Whitman through (William Carlos) Williams, or… AG: Well, I was hoping that Phil(ip) (Whalen) would teach Stein at one point or other, because Phil taught… originally.   He’s the best Stein voice I heard, or reader, (that) I(‘ve) heard – [to Philip Whalen]  Are you going to be talking about that at all? Philip Whalen: Yeah, I plan to. .. AG: Okay. My own thought … Read More

Spontaneous Poetics – 132

September 10, 2013admin

[Henri Rousseau – The Sleeping Gypsy – oil on canvas, 129.5 cm × 200.7 cm (51.0 in × 79.0 in) 1897 in the collection ofthe Museum of Modern Art]

Student: I’d like to ask you and Philip Whalen what languages that you read poetry in besides English and in what ways you find it useful? AG: I read Spanish – (Federico Garcia) Lorca and (Pablo) Neruda, and Saint John of the Cross, and various little odd things in Spanish – and I was influenced a good deal by Lorca’s “Ode to Walt Whitman” – the rhythm and sort … Read More