Thanks for talking about Camille T. Dungy’s “Characteristics of Life” with me last week. Your comments were helpful in interpreting the poem, and I’m still thinking about it. Dungy’s phrase “filter and filter and filter all day,” relating to the moon jelly’s (and, surely, a poet’s) task, brought to mind another poem, Lorine Niedecker’s “Poet’s work,” also available to read at the Poetry Foundation. “No layoff/from this/condensery,” she writes. That condensing sounds a lot like filtering to me! Niedecker’s poem enacts its subject; it’s quite short, the lines consist of four syllables at the most, and she drops at least one article.
Which leads me to Susan Orlean, who writes much longer pieces. The New Yorker staff writer and author of ten books of nonfiction mentions in a new memoir, Joyride, that in college she wrote poetry. “Writing poetry might seem at odds with my eventual career path, but I see it as connected. I loved the music of words and the economy of expression and the lapidary precision of poetry, and that stuck with me when I turned to writing nonfiction.” Quoting more would lead me into copyright-violation territory, so I highly recommend reading the whole book, which is mostly about writing and includes behind-the-scene looks at some of this brilliant writer’s most well-known works.
It’s the best feeling when the things I’m reading talk to each other.
The Poetry Friday roundup is at Patricia J. Franz’s Reverie blog on October 24th.
Photo by Susan Thomsen.
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