Gary Sange's Dissatisfied Urn
What's up with these 70s poets and their deadly-flat lines? Did someone tell these people to avoid sounding musical at all cost? Is the goal for the poem to be so lifeless and boring that it countered the extravagance of the decade? The only effort at anything resembling lyricism here is "I stare / into the steaming dark I sip / and still cannot exhaust your urn." No wonder Sange and his wife broke up--If the dude couldn't exhaust my urn, I would have dumped him too. Oh wait, he's talking about his coffee cup, and he's the one who dumped her.... my bad. But for truly awful writing, try this "The cacti / on the windowsill / will need water / in three more days." May the Gods of poetry smite Sange down for such lameness. May Adam Hardin be your best reader! My Todd Swift design your website! And may your sideburns eat your chin! Use this thread to either a) curse Gary Sange and the poem he rode in on or b) attempt to write an even flatter stanza than the one I just quoted.
posted by Snark @ 4:51 PM
10 Comments:
When I declared
I was going to the store,
you asked me
to pick up some coffee.
It is late now
and hours since I went
to the store; I stare
into your steaming eyes
Like great brown urns
of double mocha espresso
as you lift your empty cup
and place it in my hand
To make me feel your yearning.
Again, I rehearse
your last instructions
and feel I cannot exhaust them --
I await the thirst
that makes us stay awake
forever.
Nice one, M Scholar
Thanks, Snark -- always happy to oblige an invitation to snark (especially when it's well-deserved).
Some of those Jackasses over at foetry.com are right. William Carlos Williams' plain speech style is lame, and it gets even worse when it's written by third intensity characters that couldn't hold down a job
Just think... absolutely no one will remember you losers.
Sange is one of the most beautiful humans and poets I've ever met. He's a professor at my college, and the man has one of the sharpest minds you could imagine. He loves language and poetry and maybe you all should just enjoy it for what it is. And by the way- he and his wife have been married for years, they still are, with 2 wonderful children, grandchildren, and a beautiful life.
Where did you find this little poem of Gary's?
I'm curious. He's a wonderful person, even though a little nutty. We (his students) embrace that aspect of him :)
-Sheena
despina110@yahoo.com
The only elements
that might make Sange's
"poem"
poetry
are the line
breaks
which add in
unexpected and unnecessary
pauses pretending to be
pregnant with meaning
but which are in fact
pompous.
I had Sange when I was a freshman at VCU for Contemporary American Literature, and he put himself on the syllabus. We spent two hours and forty minutes discussing his own poetry. Isn't that a bit arrogant?
If ANY of you think that Gary Sange is less than a genious, then you are all idiots. He has a true way of tapping into what's true, and what's magical, without being anything less than himself. I've been in his class, and I can honestly say that this man is more than most people will ever hope to be.
Of course your a genious, Gary. Now lay off the God Damned coffee!
Post a Comment
<< Home