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<div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Dear Fellow Poeticians,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Our Beinecke session on Zaum and artificial languages needs to be indefinitely postponed (or, provisionally,) as Tim Young, our friend and trusted archivist of modern European literatures, has been under the weather--get well son, Tim! </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>So, quick change of plans... </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Instead of reading (about) Russian avant-garde work written in 1913, for our next wgcp session, scheduled for <b>February 26 (next Friday), 3-5pm, in our usual location (WHC 116), we will interrogate Charles Reznikoff's </b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Testimony</b><b>, The United States 1885-1890 (</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;"><b>Recitative</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-decoration: underline; "><b>)</b></span>, published in 1934. All are welcome.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span><b>Photocopies will be available for pick-up by 2pm tomorrow </b>(Friday)<b> </b>in our cubby hole near the reception desk at the WHC. If you'd prefer to have these documents e-mailed directly to you, please send a note to: <a href="mailto:jean-jacques.poucel@yale.edu">jean-jacques.poucel@yale.edu</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Charles Reznikoff is an important American Objectivist poet, one of the few we've not yet read together as a group. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Testimony</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "> is a powerful, sometimes disturbing, rewriting of legal documents Reznikoff sifted through while working for a law book company; it is not light reading. Our conversation will take as its primary point of departure (and analysis) the first volume of </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Testimony;</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "> those poems present the facts in cases stretching from 1885 to 1890. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>We may wish to discuss Reznikoff's work in relation to the questions of collage, editing, and serialization raised during our discussion with K. Waldrop. It would thus be useful to read a few short interviews and articles about the context, reception, and influence of this work (and other books by Reznikoff). To this end, I recommend: </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>1. Michael Davidson's "On </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Testimony</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; ">" essay, available (in brief) via the link below; </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>2. a short chapter from C. Bernstein's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">My Way;</span> and, </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>3. a couple of <span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; ">chapters from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Depression Glass: Documentary Photography and the Medium of the Camera Eye in C. Rezikoff, G. Oppen, W.C.Williams</span> (M. Vescia)--the first provides a general intro to Objectivism in its historical context (with documentary as theme), the second relates more directly to </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Testimony</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; ">. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In addition, and for your reading pleasure (because tertiary for our purposes), I'm including herewith comments on <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Testimony</span> from a legal journal, where, among other things, one is reminded that "People use dishonest language to protect themselves from other people's pain" ; and, last, but not least, reflections on the "Ineloquent Empathy" of Reznikoff's </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">Holocaust</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; ">. </span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>In the vein of fun (and discovery?) you may also care to hear Reznikoff read/speak--especially during his 1975 appearance on Susan Howe's radio program "Poetry Today"; there are numerous mp3 streaming on the web (cick links below).</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="4" style="font-size: 15px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3" style="font-size: 13px; "><br></font></font></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>With great anticipation,</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Jean-Jacques Poucel</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 11px; "> Poetics group co-coordinator and sometimes scribe</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div><b>SHORT BIO, EXCERPTS OF INTERVIEWS, EXCERPTS OF DAVIDSON ESSAY</b></div><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 13px; "><a href="http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/reznikoff/reznikoff.htm">http://www.english.illinois.edu/MAPS/poets/m_r/reznikoff/reznikoff.htm</a></font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-size: 13px; ">"On Testimony" by M. DAVIDSON from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; ">Ghostlier Demarcations: Modern Poetry and the Material Word</span> (Berkeley: University of California, 1997)</font></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div></div></div></div></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><b>NUMEROUS</b><b> SOUND RECORDINGS</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><b></b> <a href="http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Reznikoff.php">http://writing.upenn.edu/pennsound/x/Reznikoff.php</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">(nb - <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; ">not</span> readings from <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; ">Testimony;</span> often a bit cheerier) </div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 13px; ">(? was C.R. the first poet ever recorded at St Marks ?)</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style=""><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; min-height: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br></span></div><div></div></span></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>