Went to a used bookstore today. I can't seem to stay away. Almost always overwhelmed by boring poetry section. Then again in the last few weeks I did pick up:



Nice to See You (Homage to Ted Berrigan) $2

The Dada Market (anthology) $4

Routine Distortions (Kenward Elmslie) $5

Mercurochrome (Wanda Coleman) $5

Charles Simic (Selected Poems) $6

Numen (Cole Swenson) $3

The shepherd, The Hunter (selected poems of Tomaz Salamun)



So, I guess sometimes a good find happens.



I read so much theory for my MA comps I find it hard to pick up a theory book now. Don't know if it will pass. Didn't read any theory for two years while finishing my MFA. Got a lot more writing done. A lot more. Maybe it's internalized.





Someone's blog (sorry after a while blogs run together) mentioned the good fumes from decaying langauge poetry. Are we also enjoying the good fumes of surrealism and DADA poetry? Or, (i.e. the Fence debate a while back) are we misappropriating? Decontextualizing etc.



I am teaching a class in Irish literature in the spring. I keep looking for other poets from my homeland who are not elegiac etc. Surrealist Irish poet? I do enjoy Matthew Sweeney.

A lot of Irish love Billy Collins. That's the latest innovation. Easy going poetry and confessional poetry (Rita Ann Higgins). Salmon poetry is so stuck in the past. So much Romantic nature poetry. Irish poetry is stuck. Poetry Ireland Review only publishes the poetry of limited perception. Quiet voices. The weight of tradition. The weight of history.

Paul Muldoon may be an exception and Randoph Healey, Joyce (honey press etc.)