The Psychic Landscape
Above all else, memory and imagination rule the psychic landscape. The psychic landscape is the most grandiose and necessary metaphor poets have, for its tenor and its vehicle are interchangeable. Place in a poem—that is, the psychic landscape—is more an index of an emotional center from which to leap, via the imagination and personal vision and personal mythology, than it is a place in which to live out one's daily existence. Place in a poem—the psychic landscape—if properly rendered and recreated, can never be found on a map or in a tourist pamphlet. A poet's sense of place—that is, the poet’s psychic landscape—is more a symptom of a poet's relations with, connections with, and departures from others' psychic landscapes. It is through such a comparison—the perhaps slight but essential differences of “my home” held against “your home”—that we are forced to ...
Essay: The Problem of Originality
Q: What is American about American Poetry? A: Some years ago Donald Hall coined a memorable term for school-based, formulaic American poetry: the McPoem. I thought about it recently as I pulled off US 1 to grab breakfast at McDonalds. Has our poetry joined the mass-culture melting pot? The menu on the billboard reads: "Egg McMuffin, Breakfast Fajitas, French Fries, Hash Brown." Typical American gruel to be sure, but showing the mix of cultures we like to call "American." "Egg McMuffin" cooks over a British dish; "fajitas" are smuggled from Latin America; "french fries" fake being French; and "hash brown" seems to use a fancy French word-order, subject then adjective, as in the very American term, "Attorney General." American poetry draws fuel from American language -- our slang, advertising jingles, jazz and sports talk -- and it draws as well from American sensibilities: our impatience with tradition ...
Denise Duhamel (Essay)
Ever since Mark Twain’s humorous monologues, literature and stand up comedy have been intertwined. Stand-up comedy (unlike theatrical comedy which relies on several characters and a slap stick plot) is dependent upon the voice or persona of the deliverer. In the 2005 film The Aristocrats, 100 comedians all tell a version of the same joke. Halfway into the movie, Penn of Penn and Teller tries to explain how the joke changes through each rendition by saying, "It's not so much the song as the singer." In this way, stand-up is particularly fitted to poetry—one voice intimately dispensing quirky information. I have been using elements of comedy in my work for some time: heightening punch lines with line breaks; incorporating word play, misunderstandings, and surprise. A comic’s monologue and poet's comic poem both begin with a narrative, then a punch line. Once the punch is established, comics and poets can move ...
