Primary Trouble: An Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry

Leonard Schwartz, Joseph Donahue, Edward Halsey Foster

The generic-sounding subtitle is misleading: this collection anthologizes over 60 contemporary American poets (born after 1933) whose work can be described as “avant-garde” or “experimental.” More specifically, the poets fall into one of three categories, or some fusion of each: those directly influenced by nontraditional poets published in the 1950s and ’60s, like Duncan, Olson and Ashbery (e.g., Diane Di Prima, who writes mosaic-like reconstructed mythologies); the first and second generations of the New York School (such as hip confessionalist Ted Berrigan); and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets (like Michael Palmer, who writes, “There is nothing meaningful about a text”). The collection does little to aid readers who are unfamiliar with these styles, and its inclusiveness (from award winners like Susan Howe to younger poets like Myung Mi-Kim) can be overwhelming, a quality exacerbated by the book’s minimalist structure, which presents poems alphabetically by the poets’ names, yet without any accompanying commentary or biography (except for a listing of each poet’s published works). Nevertheless, the editors’ informed and energetic selections?from Andrew Schelling’s crystalline interpretation of the Isha Upanishad to Anne Lauterbach’s abstract metaphysical explorations?add up to a groundbreaking, even electrifying compendium of avant-garde American poetry.

status	Copy #1 (6939): in
genre	Literature and Fiction » Poetry
publisher	Talisman House Pub
publish date	1996
popularity	checked out 0 time(s)