Bob Perelman

Ten Language poets take turns writing reflections on their origins. This volume (the first in a proposed ten) covers 1975-1980 and is loosely organized around a theme of "love." The unusual collective authorship scheme here is overtly designed to evoke multiplicity and ultimately create a "community of memory," although a less kind read might be to point out that it also serves to build the Language Poetry "brand," perhaps as part of a bid for long-term canonization. After all, the very show more point of writing autobiography (on one level) is to self-aggrandize, and although the Language thinkers, with their grounding in theory and radical politics, are more likely than most to critique this implulse, they don't manage here to transcend this aspect of the genre. All the same, the group assembled here is basically an all-star list of important poets writing today, and it's fascinating reading for anyone interested in putting their poetic work in context. show less

A few lines from Bob Perelman's a.k.a.:

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“A sense of having all the time in the world” as told to a machine by a piece of fiction.

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An immense pressure to locate the bargains amid the sense of betrayed values.

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Goodnight thousands of times, until inside and outside have the identical awesome echo.

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The reward you were tacitly promised when you began reading this sentence is now yours.

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The principle that wakes, showers, dresses and leaves has now been identified. It is chance.

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The great show more disturbance in his life turned out to be his life.

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Poetry

Sections 1 & 2 originally published as Tuumba 19