Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Thanksgiving Moon<\/p>\n
if every word spoken in new york city daily
\nwere somehow to materialize as a snowflake,
\neach day there would be a blizzard.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Goldsmith, Soliloquy. \u00a0Postscript<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The last week of ModPo. \u00a0The conceptual poets. \u00a0The book from which the quote above comes, Soliloquy, is every word the poet, Kenneth Goldsmith, spoke in a whole week. \u00a0He wore a microphone, recorded his speech, then sat down and transcribed it. \u00a0A lot of work. \u00a0Not as much work, however, as another work of his, Day, in which he transcribed every word in one day’s New York Times. \u00a0A 1,000 page book.<\/p>\n
Christian Bok, a Canadian poet, took seven years to complete his project, Euonia. \u00a0In Euonia<\/a> he writes 5 chapters, each of which had to have a banquet, an orgy, a feast, a voyage, refer to the act of writing and, most improbably, use only words containing only one vowel, the same vowel, 98% of those words available. \u00a0There is a bit more to Euonia, which means beautiful thinking and is the shortest word in the English language that uses all the vowels.<\/p>\n These are highwire acts of virtuosity and the real creative act is in the concept, especially in Goldsmith. \u00a0The concept–what would every word in one edition of the New York Times look like transcribed into a linear text and bound in a book look like?–was the creative moment. \u00a0The act of fulfillment, the days and weeks of transcription, is either non creative or uncreative.<\/p>\n Interesting stuff. \u00a0I’m more with this than I was with the Chance poets of last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Samhain \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Thanksgiving Moon if every word spoken in new york city daily were somehow to materialize as a snowflake, … Continue reading Conceptual Poetry<\/span>