Breaking news: Poetry is impressed with my work...

but would rather I send it elsewhere, at least for now. Full story below:

In his blog The Projector is Ripping Your History (see sidebar blogroll), which I often read as self-flagellation or, more precisely, as a reminder of how little submitting I do of my own poetry, Keith Montesano lists a new publication nearly every time he posts. It’s amazing, astounding, and well-deserved, so I can’t begrudge him the success. Following his example, I thought I would post similar information. No, it’s not a publication, but a near-publication, which as any fledging poet knows is almost just as good: Poetry says they are “impressed” with my last submission, though nothing fits with the journal at the moment, and hopes I feel encouraged to send again… “after awhile.” Should I be excited about this, or is this a common “personalized” rejection from Poetry? How long is “after awhile?”

To give you an idea of Poetry, for those unfamiliar with the publication, here’s a line from the July/August 2009 issue (yes, I’m behind, but I’m still working through this massive issue):

“Ironing hung dejectedly over a chair, / gesture that comes from who-knows-where.”
—Elisabeth Eybers, “Poet as Housewife,” pg. 294

Though to be fair, here’s another line from that same issue, different poem:

“What elevator is this anyway, that even the prospect / of going down has made you high?”
—Kevin McFadden, “A Date,” pg. 301

Does the chair/where rhyme tap into what Christian Wiman (editor of Poetry) called “the tension between language and life?” I’m not sure. One thing I can say is that when I first started reading Poetry as an undergraduate, I found it painful and hard-going, mostly because cracking open the spine of the journal felt like I had pulled something down from my grandfather’s bookshelf. Everything seemed archaic and dusty. With Wiman taking over, the journal not only got a welcomed facelift—who doesn’t love the feel and look of the pages now?—but the quality of the poetry, in my opinion, has improved. And then, there’s the prose…

*

A few small concerns: yes, this blog is still so new, there are a few glitches, namely the header (I will design one where the text overlain on the image is readable) and the fact that somehow this computer misspelled Lorrie Moore’s name twice. How could that have happened??? The flipside: the blog still has that new-blog smell. Breathe it in.

*

For those friends of mine facing the GRE subject test in the next year, (I’m looking at you Lisa,) I have instituted this weekly feature: GRE Subject Test Review, Or, You’re Not Dumb, Literature is Just Very Hard.

Today’s vocabulary word: Aestheticism

Aestheticism signifies a group of British decadent writers deeply influenced by Pater (who came up often when I was studying for the GRE subject test—he must be important or something) who said that life had to be lived intensely, following the ideal of beauty. They are associated with l’art pout l’art (“art for art’s sake”) and asserted that there was no connection between art and morality. Instead of moral or sentimental messages, they believed art should convey refined sensuous pleasure (wahoo!) and rejected Ruskin’s and Matthew Arnold’s utilitarian view that art is something moral of useful.

Other belief include: art should have no didactic purpose but instead should be beautiful; “cult of beauty” was a basic factor in art; life should copy art; nature is crude when compared to art, and nature lacks design.

Characteristics of aesthetic writing: 1) suggestion rather than statement 2) sensuality 3) massive use of symbols 4) synaesthetic (correspondence between words, colors, and music)

Fore-runners of aestheticism: Keats and Shelley

Writers associated with aestheticism: Wilde, Swinburne (influenced by French symbologists), Rossetti