[-empyre-] A poem is a small (or large) machine

[Murat Nemet-Nejat]

""There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small
(or large) machine made out of words. When I say there's nothing
sentimental about a poem, I mean that there can be no part that is
redundant. Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matter like a ship.
But poetry is a machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy."

Margaret, if we change the word "redundant" to "non-functional," one might
as well be describing modern architecture of Bauhaus, etc. I wonder if our
era has not gone beyond that stage and requires a different aesthetic, one
more in tune with the realities of our times.

Ciao,
Murat

On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 1:22 PM, Margaret J Rhee <mrhee at uoregon.edu> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> "There's nothing sentimental about a machine, and: A poem is a small
> (or large) machine made out of words. When I say there's nothing
> sentimental about a poem, I mean that there can be no part that is
> redundant. Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matter like a ship.
> But poetry is a machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy.
> As in all machines, its movement is intrinsic, undulant, a physical
> more than a literary character."
>
> I'd like to start a thread about this quote by WCW, that Mike raised here.
> A friend the Mexican poet Hugo Martinez, remarked we should replace machine
> with machete.
>
> "There must be something hardwired into its machinery--a heartbeat, a
> pulse--that keeps it breathing." -- Ed Hirsch
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
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