Robert Edward Duncan (1919–1988)

It is as if I were moving towards
the wastes of water all living things remember the world to be,
the law of me
going under the wave.

Doubt was rather high. My approach to this collection was almost reluctant. Timid. There were early aspects I found to be inscrutable. Poundian cryptograms. Words carefree on foreboding space. I feared my limitations, not the impossible---though the sum of which hardly differs, no?

Then I found sections on grieving, Palpable human loss, the mad work to show more construct to satisfy, to allow matters to linger. Then there was the outrage: Vietnam.
From the height of the endless towerwhere Ecstasy carried me:
I have gazed at the cold and sad world, black and agitated. . .

The structure of this verse is pretty amazing, even to a roustabout layman like myself: a Beckett in greasy overalls. show less

Must have taken me a year to work through this collection. The interviews cover a lot of territory and I have surely forgotten much of the earlier ones. One the other hand there is a lot of repetition, naturally enough, so my reading of the earlier interviews will surely have helped me read the later ones.

I am not much of a poetry reader so this book was certainly a voyage into waters not utterly unknown but for which my maps have only the vaguest sketches. Over the years I have made show more occasional forays into poetry but I tend to come away more puzzled than anything else... yet with enough of a sense of depth to keep coming back around for another traverse. Hence my reading of this book.

One thing I really appreciated here was that despite my vast ignorance I did not feel excluded. Certainly the book was thick with references to very familiar names - Pound, Williams - very unfamiliar names - Jack Spicer - and everything in between. But I could pick up enough about these authors from the context that I never felt utterly lost. This book empowered me. It has given me some tools and orientation so I feel like maybe on my next traversal I will a a bit broader perspective from which to read.

I think I just picked up some of Duncan's works in a book store, impressed by the high praise in the blurbs on the cover. So my diving into Duncan is really quite random. Now, after working through the interviews, I know that he was homosexual and quite famously so in his time, having written about it at a time when it was practically unprecedented. I remember some rather graphic descriptions in one or two interviews, so probably this is not a book for ten year old children, but really any ten year old who could read that far into the book would be able to handle those few sections anyway.

In probably the last long interview there was some discussion about the habitat of the poet. But all through the book there is constant discussion about community - mostly about poets but also about painters, especially since Duncan's partner was a painter. What would it be to participate in such a habitat? I suppose as a software and electronics engineer I have a professional habitat or two myself... but oh my that is a long way from poetry! What a strange world we live in, where our culture is so fragmented. I appreciated this collection of interviews as a kind of guided tour, like an open house in a habitat that I usually experience as rather closed. Some of this open spirit I think is Duncan's. I'm not sure I am quite ready to tackle his poetry yet... ah, Duncan mentioned Robert Browning a few times... I got into The Ring and The Book some years back... I could pick that back up and read the next section... that might be a proper way to celebrate finishing these interviews! show less

Although many of these poems and pieces contain imagery that can all but freeze a reader's breath, I fear it's not a collection I could really recommend. As a whole, the collection feels more experimental than powerful, and as much as I love poetry, I didn't find myself enjoying much of this read. I'm not the biggest fan of Duncan's work, though I read him enough in poetry courses, but this collection left me less engaged even than others, and although I could appreciate the works, I simply show more didn't get any real enjoyment from them. show less

The most powerful poems here are those dealing with language and art/creation. It's an interesting and complex collection, but one which requires concentration and an acceptance of complexity. I'm not always sure that Duncan isn't more concerned with experimentation and language-play than any meaning, but there are Some poems here which I know I'll be returning to---those poems alone made it well worth my time.