At last. What Ann Lauterbach said.

Well, I finally found my notes. Not that they make a whole lot of integrated sense to me right now, but maybe as I type this post it'll come back together from the dustbunnied corners.



For previous post, see here.



I thought about scanning them and just letting you try to decipher my scratchings, but that's cruel & unusual.



But I think I will post faithfully, meaning adding nothing that isn't actually written on the page. Perhaps asides with [#] footnotes.



--------------

READING



hand motions

like she's conducting herself in

orchestra



joke re: podium for women [1]



she & DL aren't bored of each other yet [2]



"Instruction"--and a one...with the hands

a sort of secret sign language



"Postscript to time"



"Come" from Fence.

& poem LH chose for BAP 2004. [3]



modified same gestures with her head

not wiggly!



reads very quickly



first thought/worst though in her case [4]



"A person's biography has a certain motion."



Do not butter the toast.



Tuesdays are beautiful = WTC poem

the poem from Fence

line as refrain throughout



the weather is yesterday



things disarrayed

deranged.



doll poem--funny to end. what kind of poet am i?



repetition/anaphora--her favorite device

allusion [or maybe illusion?] of "starts"





AL: "2 more? 3? Have time for 3?"

DL: "Yes."

AL: "3 is always better."

DL: "That's what Dante said."



"In my case it's never descriptive."



Boticelli painting

w/ man in turban

or headdress--

eyes are very peculiar

was assassinated

somehow not quite

there



"To walk slowly behind"





Q&A



concentrating of formal ideas

a narrowing of space

abstract, esp. a huge effect on how we

talk about poems, gestures,

elaborations.



in talking she is more animated.



DL: "Some questions are better asked...and then skipped." [Laughter]



blue as note & image



The act of revision itself is inspiration?

Totally.

Make rough [maybe] messes trying to figure out

where the poem is. "Sometimes I destroy

the poem revising it too much."



Lucky ones.

Don't revise.



A little febrile thing

[opening of the fingers gesture]



"Oh my poem! My poem!

They're very nice to do

b/c they're like surprises!" [5]



makes a lot of poems out of scraps

cloth vs. tie or shirt



[a fearfulness

about loss of

coherence]



She wants to make this positive.

Related to [illegible]

in tune w/ revelations [maybe?]



loves narrativity

but figures in landscape

not responsible for creating a narrative for them

"The comfort of stories is one thing I disallow."



The powerful pleasure of fragments.

Heightens the pleasure.



Prohibition against them is ridiculous.

Because a bunch of theorists

were worried about it.



Assignment [6]: Use the words of a poem (the poem's lexicon) and write another poem. "That's your bank--all the money you have."



-------------------



[1] AL is not tall, though not short. She said she always thinks about podiums not being designed for women. I'm 5'11", so this had not, um, occured to me.



[2] DL = David Lehman, our host. They have known each other for many years and have read together, etc.



[3] Lyn Hejinian is the guest editor for Best American Poetry 2004.



[4] Her words!



[5] Mock poet voice.



[6] DL asks each visiting poet to recommend an assignment--one they use themselves or give to their students.