The Best American Poetry

The Story is in the Fight

I’m not interested in finding the best chili restaurant in Cincinnati.  I’m interested in Cincinnatians fighting about who has the best chili. 

                                                  Calvin Trillin, NYT October 5, 2008

-- sdh

Cri de Coeur

Oy vey, my country!  I would sob if it weren't such … an American crisis: goofy, headstrong, distracted, with a bunch of old men in dark suits running around looking for their mommies.  And we're poets: what do WE know?

-- Jim Cummins

"Perhaps theory should listen to poetry. . ."

"Perhaps theory should listen to poetry, give up the ideal of the subjectless text, stop denouncing the space between subject and object as simply false, and begin to see it as a devious and sophisticated and thoroughly artificial structure, where something new and alien might come to life."

– Michael Clune quoted by Sharon Mesmer
See her article in the Brooklyn Rail.

The Moral Equivalent of War

On September 12, NYC Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg addressed the ServiceNation Summit, which brought together 500 leaders from a wide cross-section of American life to celebrate the power and potential of citizen service and to address America's social challenges through volunteer and national service. In his remarks, Mayor Bloomberg cited philospher William James's "pioneering argument for wide-scale, voluntary national service in his [essay, 'The Moral Equivalent of War.'"  Bloomberg may have had this passage in mind:

"Such a conscription [to National Service] with the state of public opinion that would have required it, and the many moral fruits it would bear, would preserve in the midst of a pacific civilization the manly virtues which the military party is so afraid of seeing disappear in peace. We should get toughness without callousness, authority with as little criminal cruelty as possible, and painful work done cheerily because the duty is temporary, and threatens not, as now, to degrade the whole remainder of one's life. I spoke of the "moral equivalent" of war. So far, war has been the only force that can discipline a whole community, and until an equivalent discipline is organized, I believe that war must have its way. But I have no serious doubt that the ordinary prides and shames of social man, once developed to a certain intensity, are capable of organizing such a moral equivalent as I have sketched, or some other just as effective for preserving manliness of type. It is but a question of time, of skillful propagandism, and of opinion-making men seizing historic opportunities."

Earlier in the essay, James observes:

"Reflective apologists for war at the present day all take it religiously. It is a sort of sacrament. It's profits are to the vanquished as well as to the victor; and quite apart from any question of profit, it is an absolute good, we are told, for it is human nature at its highest dynamic. Its "horrors" are a cheap price to pay for rescue from the only alternative supposed, of a world of clerks and teachers, of co-education and zo-ophily, of "consumer's leagues" and "associated charities," of industrialism unlimited, and feminism unabashed. No scorn, no hardness, no valor any more! Fie upon such a cattleyard of a planet!"

Read the essay, first published in 1906, here.

-- sdh

What Marilyn Monroe Had

What Marilyn Monroe Had

Director Billy Wilder called it "flesh impact."

"Flesh impact is rare," he said. "Three I remember who had it were Clara Bow, Jean Harlow and Rita Hayworth. Such girls have flesh which photographs like flesh. You feel you can reach out and touch it."

Writer Nunnally Johnson compared MM to the Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls. "You can't talk to it. It can't talk to you. All you can do is stand back and be awed by it," he said.

A journalist once asked about her a photo shoot. "You mean you didn't have anything on?" The journalist sounded scandalized, so Marilyn replied, "Oh yes, I had the radio on."

"You know what I do on hot days like this? I keep my undies in the ice box."

Nagasaki

The second atomic bomb was dropped at 11:02 AM on this day in 1945: nicknamed "the Fat Man," the bomb devastated Nagasaki and demonstrated that the attack on Hiroshima three days earlier was repeatable. When the Emperor Hirohito announced Japan's unconditional surrender, he explained that "the war situation has developed not necessariy to Japan's advantage." 
photos by Yosuke Yamahata

The Birth of Tragedy

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Much will have been gained for aesthetics once we have succeeded in apprehending directly -- rather than merely ascertaining -- that art owes its continuous evolution to the Apollinian - Dionysian duality, even as the propagation of the species depends on the duality of the sexes, their constant conflicts and periodic acts of reconciliation.

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A great opening, the first sentence in Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy states the thesis of the book, introduces a critical distinction ("apprehending directly" as superior to "merely ascertaining"), and illustrates the main point with a complex simile, ostensibly a subordinate clause but one that threatens to eclipse all that preceded it. Before you have quite begun to grasp the idea of the "duality" between Apollo and Dionysos, and its significance for understanding why Aeschylus is superior to Euripides, we're asked to accept the casual observation that the sexes are in constant conflict. No wonder a couple in the heat of love concludes its quarrels with nothing resolved but the force of sexual attraction triumphant.

-- DL

Ask Graham Greene

Ask Graham Greene the difference between journalism and fiction, and he'll say that "novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction."

He will add that "Media is just a word that has come to mean bad journalism."

-- DL

Missed Connections

"A fellow will remember a lot of things you wouldn't think he'd remember. You take me. One day, back in 1896, I was crossing over to Jersey on the ferry, and as we pulled out, there was another ferry pulling in, and on it there was a girl waiting to get off. A white dress she had on. She was carrying a white parasol. I only saw her for one second. She didn't see me at all, but I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since that I haven't thought of that girl. "
                        -- Bernstein (Everett Sloane), Citizen Kane, 1941

Just think how lucky Bernstein would be if he were alive today.  He would have Craigslist at his disposal.  I am deeply moved by the longing, wistfulness, and depth of emotion expressed in these posts.

-- sdh

More Martinis

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The first Martini I ever drank was strictly medicinal, for threatened seasickness, and in spite of a loyal enjoyment of them which may be increasing in direct ratio to my dwindling selectivity of palate, I must admit that I still find them a sure prop to my flagging spirits, my tired or queasy body, even my over-timid social self. I think I know how many to drink, and when, and where, as well as why; and if I have acted properly and heeded all my physical and mental reactions to them, I have been the winner in many an otherwise lost bout with everything from boredom to plain funk. A well-made Martini or Gibson, correctly chilled and nicely served, has been more often my true friend than any two-legged creature.

-- M. F. K. Fisher, "To the Gibson and Beyond" (The Atlantic, January 1949)

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Remember: the only difference between a Martini and a Gibson is that the former gets an olive or lemon twist, the latter a cocktail onion or two. To make a "dirty" Martini serve with an olive and add a little of the olive juice from the jar. Vodka Martinis are OK, but for the full effect I recommend mixing gin (Hendrick's or Plymouth or Tanqueray or Beefeater) with a tablespoon of dry vermouth (preferably French: Noilly Prat); shake with ice, and serve straight up in frozen Martini glasses. Keep the gin (or vodka) in the freezer.

-- DL