endlessly sweeping the floor and doorways

"Give people a new word and they think they have a new fact." - Willa Cather

I knew I was in for it when I arrived and likely it's not as bad here are elsewhere. The theory, I mean. The kind of pseudo-philosophical talk--arguments made by referring to concepts or thinkers, where the concept or thinker himself is the justification of the argument. "It's what Foucault calls..." "Oh, yes, I agree with you now." Names become ways of hedging positions, defining communities, validating intelligence. I don't think I say anything here that isn't obvious...

I think what bothers me most is the idea that you can't say no to it. (There are gods you can't deny.) I don't know how best to describe it--though I think it happens in other fields as well. If you feel like these theoretical contortions are nonsense, you only banish yourself to Ignorance and Bad Taste (the way some look down on Billy Collins--me included). So, if you don't want to be one of those you must keep burning the incense, building the altars, even if you don't believe in it. In the end, somehow you must justify yourself. It is the unavoidable question because to avoid it is to answer it. And your validation as a Poet depends on your theories about Poetry (which sometimes eclipse the work, or make the work a kind of argument-by-example for a theory).

Worst of all, the whole thing is invisible. If you talk to any one person, you won't find it. You won't feel it. It's all around you--but you can't identify it. And sometimes you think it's just you and your hair-brained conspiracy theory because you're too cowardly and not confident enough to play with the big dogs. Like I said, you can't escape. You can't step out of it and walk around it.

Perhaps I mean something else altogether... maybe I'm talking about Language, or maybe Community. Or, to briefly list, the gods you can't deny: Money, Technology, Health, the Political, Sex, Work, Morality.

household god: willa cather

     I used to think the faculties
               Staring out the chains
     Wishing to be
               Otherwise indisposed—
     Now I think that or more like:
               A shiver, a cough
     The chilblained soul
               Praying through the nose.

Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find plays a cameo role in the new movie Dan In Real Life--they even mention it and show the cover upside down.

A woman walks by a chalkboard that reads:

E = mc²

She exclaims, "My kid could write that!"

What happened here?

tentative definition of art (for dan)

The world passing through any mind (1) being apprehended by any mind (2).

For this definition, the mind includes the body.

The category of Mind includes children, animals, computers, complex natural processes.

The category of Mind may or may not include God. [?]

Not all minds can apprehend the world passing through minds.

Mind (1) can be the artist while Mind (2) is the audience.

Mind (1) can be the audience while Mind (2) can be the artist.

Mind (1) can be at the same time Mind (2). [Imagination]

Mind (1) = Mind (2), and be the artist.

Mind (1) = Mind (2), and be the audience. [Self-consciousness]

This experience compels the second mind to emotional response, wonder, awe, a feeling of magic, thoughts of transcendence or loss of self, animal spirits, dreams, horror--also novelty, humor, playfulness, simplicity, happiness.

The human mind remains mysterious and capable of producing practically infinite output. Multiply the output of artists by the output of audiences. This swirl of imagination generated from our brains and bodies is the cause of endless fascination--due to perception and the consciousness of perception.

---

The question is, when it comes to definitions of art, what values do you want to defend? What objects do you want to keep or exclude? So, for my definition, it's important to have a definition that includes the creator, the reader/viewer and the experience. The object being the least-defined part. It's important for me to have a definition that is grounded in biology, human psychology and involves the exterior world. It allows for both the experience of an artist's object and the 'seeing-as-art' experience (e.g. found objects). I want a definition that is not transcendent or spiritual and one that has room for cartoons and Bernini, the Language Poets and Shel Silverstein.*

But, then, of course, after all that... I don't need a definition.

*Just a little pet peeve: Definitions or encomia about poetry that exclude light verse. You can't imagine these hifalutin Creative Writing pontificators ever as children actually enjoying Dr. Seuss or Ogden Nash or limerick books. Heaven forbid we love word play, puns, jokes, Wit! I mean, Wit's for those hack writers like Shakespeare. I can imagine the trouble for many poetry non-lovers is the great disconnect between all they loved and appreciated as children and the complete and utter elimination of those elements from all of contemporary poetry! Not just the devaluing of it but the complete loss of it.

Why should I have to give up what gives me pleasure in poetry in order to become a 'rEaL' poet?

Why do I feel embarassed and defensive about a poem like "He drew a lot of fire"? Tut, tut, say the serious writers. Tut, tut.

He drew a lot of fire (poem)

He drew
a lot

of
fire

and due
to that

fact a few
lived
longer

though
none flew
back

save as
cinders

blown
& black--

last he
knew was
flak unto

the bombers
and the
bombers

into flak.

chicago diaries 3

- It has now been two full months since I arrived here in Chicago. The weather has changed, things look familiar. I notice less but feel more comfortable. I already have to think about classes for next semester--next semester? After next semester I'm halfway done! And then what, and then what...

- When I think long-term, I don't think about staying in Chicago. At least not yet. Feeling rooted is important to me--the ability to circumscribe a place, like a dog, and settle down into it. Maybe I'll find a way to settle here but I still like Omaha. Less input but more freedom. When I dream, I think of going back to Omaha and living there a long time. I think that's still loneliness talking.

- Sometimes I walk these streets with so much love--imaginary love--like an angel passing through these days, touching invisibly strangers. There are moments on a bus, or train, on the sidewalk or in a store where you get a chance to bless someone. You buy someone a sandwich, you crack a casual joke. I am at all times aware of being so wealthy--in luck and strategy--and full of gratitude. Even gratitude was given to me. A positive outlook, confidence, mental health--all these were given to me. The world screams, writhes with the Legion.

- At the Art Institute I'm learning that art and aesthetics change at all times and in all places. And there are Pharisees in art and writing who, with good intentions and devotion to Art, turn what was once an experience of beauty into a rule that limits it. And, just like religious denominations, it is assumed that to love your own aesthetic is to not love others. (You have to justify not loving everything, you have to come up with reasons why others are unworthy.) But as faith, hope and love move between and beyond all denominations and traditions, so do imagination, creativity and emotion move between and beyond all art practices (and all theories).

Source: Me: Stories of My Life by Katherine Hepburn

I composed this this morning in a notebook.

black flag at nwc

Big news at my little alma mater:

Black flag artwork upsets veterans

...
Hanging inside the entrance of the Thea G. Korver Visual Arts Center, the black flag, created by 1975 Northwestern alum Greg Schoon, has drawn complaints from veterans since it went on display over the weekend as part of an exhibit featuring art from the school's alumni.
...
Northwestern President Bruce Murphy said he had received 15 to 20 complaints by noon Wednesday. As a Vietnam veteran, Murphy said he personally is offended by the artwork, but the display is an educational opportunity and will not be taken down until the exhibit ends later this month.

"We certainly don't mean that Northwestern College agrees with that art piece and its description, nor do we mean to disrespect the military or the United States," Murphy said, "We want to expose our students to and have them examine carefully points of view with which they don't agree.

"I have heard people appreciate the fact we allowed it to be shown."

-------------------
I was at first a bit shocked that the flag was allowed to stay--although there is a precedent in the past for it. And I think that the administration, who lived during and wrestled with the Vietnam war, probably sees the issues raised by this work as controversial but normal.

Also, it is the work of an alum, not a student or professor, and that bolsters the college's position. One can't complain, "Who is teaching our children?" or "What are you teaching our children?" (The term 'children' being all you need to understand the kind of assumptions that go into that kind of thinking--a kind of thinking that unfortunately gets expressed by faculty and staff at times.)

Update: Here's the artist's site with a picture of the work and the artist's statement. His other work looks like a lot of fun.

Download my first collage poetry book (for a limited time!)

My first book of collage poems, stammer anthem, is complete and you can download it now here:

http://www.box.net/shared/static/am5hdlf1h5.pdf

The service it is stored with is a pay-service and I'm on my trial-version right now--so I either need to find some free web storage or pay the fee. I will think of something...but just in case, download it today!

22 reasons why I make collage poems

1. The process precludes (and therefore does not need) a priori inspiration.

2. I never start with a blank page--I begin with a completed, publication-worthy text.

3. There is no failure. Failure is believing in failure.

4. Collage opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

5. The process makes you aware of language--words, syntax, grammar--and thus is a poetic process.

6. The fragility of my voice--that it barely exists and if so only contingently--mirrors the fragility of our own lives and personal identity. (How hard it is to be a someone...)

7. The act of composition is revision. The final pasted poem is impossible to revise.

8. It automatically gives me a new vocabulary.

9. It provides more surprises than free writing.

10. It gives me an excuse to write like Shakespeare. (and appropriate like Milton...)

11. It makes its history apparent.

12. It is always aware of itself--words placed next to each other on a page.

13. It is serious or silly, meaningful or meaningless depending on how you wish to look at it--just like life.

14. All its works are works of serendipity. It could've been so different but it happened this way and not another. Give me the book again and everything will fall out differently.

15. Originality comes built-in. Give the same text to 10 other people and get 10 unique visions. Ask 10 people to write about topic x and you're likely to get very similar work.

16. Words comes first--then meaning.

17. It reminds me of editing film, building a stone wall, sculpting clay, collecting shells on the beach--autumn leaves, a house of many rooms.

18. It requires humility and grace to make them. It requires grace and charity to receive them.

19. Where collage is, there is freedom--there is no secret knowledge, there is no magic trick of creativity, all the cards are face up.

20. I can be any author I ever wished to be--and yet always find myself again inside of him or her.

21. The process is nearly identical to traditional creative writing--and yet it is foolishness to the traditionalist and a stumbling block to mainstream publication.

22. It keeps me young by keeping me at play. It never lets me forget why as I child I first fell in love with poetry--the pure pleasure of language wirked up.

yay for monkey

what ryan does on a friday night

Drawing, drawing, drawing...try something new, try something else new...then I find myself including a fabric softner and packing tape into one drawing, then dishwashing soap and raspberry iced tea powder:


Little inner child says, "Smear! Smear!" And then I have paper towels covered in this rust-colored liquid. Hmmm, what do I do with these?

I do some of those, and then realize that I could mix this powder with anything--so I start spitting onto the paper and adding powder. And the little kid says, "Play with it." So I let it roll around on the paper and get this (sorry a little blurred):

And this one:


On nights like these the question, "Is this good art?" is a mistake, an error, a misunderstanding. You've missed it completely. I say that but as soon as I stop making--as soon as I stop--I think, "I'm not really an artist. I don't have any talent. I can't do anything like the artists I love. This is Childish...anyone could do this." I, of course, want to show you--my friend--and tell you about spitting and smearing. I get a kick out of that.

I think it's interesting when comedians decide they want to do 'serious roles.'

I found out this week (after finishing my series of poems collaged from his book On Chesil Beach) that last year Ian McEwan was accused of plagiarism. See the NYT article here. Quote:

“Although I can say that the nature of the borrowings is a bit startling, the overall impact of McEwan’s novel and Lucilla’s autobiography is very different,” Ms. Haddon [of the Romantic Novelists' Association] said. She called the brouhaha over the similarities “nonsense.”