Category Archives: Quotations

Things people said.

How Poetry Feels About Itself

Posted on April 12, 2022 by JMN

Rae Armantrout’s poem “Smidgins” fulfills an imperative of lyric, which is “Don’t be gassy.” Also another imperative, which is “Talk in riddles.” My crumpled, wrinkled / blurt / of flesh. // “Let’s face it,” / it says. * … Ravaged … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

On ‘Love Letter to a Dead Body’

Posted on April 2, 2022 by JMN

I’m intrigued by the tension in Jake Skeet’s [sic] poem: Its title juxtaposes love with death, and its rhythms press against the nettle-like images. The first stanza’s images are scarred and rough with “burr and sage,” “bottles” and the “cirrhosis … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Coming Unstuck With Glück

Posted on March 27, 2022 by JMN

I’ve acquiesced to much of what I can’t quite fathom in Louise Glück’s poetry. Enough reaches me to defeat surliness. I feel surprisingly addressed at times: … You are like me whether or not you admit it. / Unsatisfied. Meticulous. … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Not Everything Is a Sonnet, Damn It

Posted on March 20, 2022 by JMN

“I get pretty impatient with people who consider any fourteen-line poem to be a sonnet. The turns of thought are crucial, as is the number of turns.” (Carl Phillips, interviewed by David Baker, http://www.kenyonreview.org) The interview inspiring these illustrations is … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Dogs or Cats?

Posted on February 10, 2022 by JMN

If you could meet any writer, dead or alive, who would it be? And what would you want to know?It seems to me that the author plays a kind of secondary role in this whole business of literature. Authors are … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Rochelle Feinstein: ‘I Don’t Want to Make Work That’s Beautiful’

Posted on January 31, 2022 by JMN

By the time [Rochelle Feinstein] arrived at Pratt, she knew she wanted to make art — an awareness inspired in large part by reading Marguerite Yourcenar’s 1951 “Memoirs of Hadrian,” a fictionalized autobiography of the Roman emperor. “I realized that … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Pronoun Rebellion (1)

Posted on January 22, 2022 by JMN

It’s apparent that contributors to Poetry magazine compose their own biographical snapshots, which allows for a gamut of voicings and modes of self-assertion. A grammar nerd notices how these established and establishing technicians of the word mold language to their … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Art Tickle: Mixing Your Blacks

Posted on January 20, 2022 by JMN

Is there a better definition of art than the effort, the ache, to explain one’s inner experience and be understood?… I was starting out as a painter, and [Chuck Close] supported and encouraged me. He bought me my first proper … Continue reading →

Posted in Quotations | Tagged | Leave a comment

Wayne Thiebaud: ‘Deadpan Style of Figuration’

Posted on January 13, 2022 by JMN

Wayne Thiebaud (1920-2021) is said to have painted daily to the end. He described himself as driven by “this almost neurotic fixation of trying to learn to paint.” “It has never ceased to thrill and amaze me,” he said, “the … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Rewarded With Provocations

Posted on January 8, 2022 by JMN

It helps me read contemporary poetry to conjure the mindset of an athlete in the elite sport of pole vaulting. The bar sits there at a distanced height. I summon latency, coil with icy focus, charge the standards, launch myself … Continue reading →

Posted in Anthology, Commentary, Quotations | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments