The Lichtenberg Figures

Ben Lerner

“The poetic establishment has co-opted contradiction. And the poetic establishment has not co-opted contradiction. Are these poems just cumbersome or are these poems a critique of cumbersomeness?” What else can I say? The author seems to be mocking either himself, or the reader to be. Not sure. “I wish all difficult poems were profound. Honk if you wish all difficult poems were profound.” Honk. Actually, I feel like all profound poems should be understandable, or at least agreeable, because difficult poems give me a headache. Discreet inside jokes between the author and his mind are fun little catacombs for sure, but they aren’t very profound if they can’t be translated to 101 languages and astonish the bookstore explorer in India, and anyways, I’m increasingly facetious and ranting, you decide if these poems are profound.

status	Copy #1 (7497): in
genre	Literature and Fiction » Poetry
publisher	Copper Canyon Press
publish date	2004
popularity	checked out 0 time(s)