/nor

Funny that you use Ted Berrigan’s Collected Poems as an example of really liking a book outside your usual “discourse radius,” to use David Antin’s term. I have exactly the opposite reaction to Berrigan. I should love his work; most of my friends do, and of course he’s writing under the sign of Frank O’Hara, who is one of my great favorites. But I find Berrigan self-indulgent, self-important, and just plain irritating, and I have no interest in Alice Notley either. Second-generation New York poetry (or is this third-gen?) strikes me as a throwback to a messy confessionalism that lacks form.

- Marjorie Perloff (http://www.ohiou.edu/nor/)

There's an interesting new journal called New Ohio Review (/nor) from Ohio University. It includes a discussion between Marjorie Perloff and David Wojahn about Robert Lowell. That's where I got this surprising quote. Perloff is always interesting, even though I often disagree with her (as in this case) and though (or perhaps because) she's heavy-handed in her pronouncements. Recently she's been making forays into modern Swedish poetry (I've helped her with some translations).

As for Berrigan, his poetry has had great influence on my own writing mainly because his sensibilities are so different from my own (though we are both O'Hara-philes). I have often used his poetry to undo my own habits. But to be honest, I don't like his later work. It does become a bit dull.

I should love Duncan. Most of my friends do. But I can't get into it.