Thursday, April 14, 2005

some comments on silliman

posted today in response to Ron's ever brilliant response to the rebirth of Black Sparrow Books. P.S. I left out Escheleman.


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Lorna Dee Cervantes said...



Right on, Ron, as usual.

Alan & Kristin met in my undergraduate poetry workshops in Boulder. I believe the moment they fell in love was the night Alan prepared an elaborately nutritious caserole construction for our class potluck, I seem to remember a brown rice mountain, broccoli trees and a river ran through it, it may have been a model of some place at the foot of the Flatirons - nobody would eat it but Kristin. I miss them.

btw, by hook or by crook or by chance, I ended up with your nea submission in my stack. It was at the top of my picks & by hook or by crook or by folly, I was selected to present it to the general panel (Pinsky was paired with me). I don't remember what I said, but it felt eloquent. I quoted lines, I now can not recall which or the words, as I take the anonymity aspect very seriously, besides, I was then directing cw, so who had time to read recent poetry. I felt I convinced plenty that this was the best poetry being written in America today, and it ought to be supported. When the final selections were made, ranked and names announced to the panelists, I had jotted down the numbers of my top 5 so I asked "who was number ******" after every one else had asked. "Ron Silliman." All right, I said to myself, grinning - and that's not a mispelling. Felicidades! You deserve it - after all these dog-gone days. I remember back when in the BA, when you and Ron (RIP) were the hot up n coming when I was in high school & attending the teach-ins & readings. I remember your prison work, your class work, and always with that laser on your shoulder. I read all the litmags back then, being a smallpress fanatic. I especially remember your early writings, the l=a=n=g=u=a=g=e work. I have used the phrase, now all in the past, "Ron Silliman is highly underrated."

$o bravo belated for bravery and heroism. Congratulation$. I've long admired your work from afar and afield. As I tell my students, "Just write it well." Don't you think that writing well is the best revenge?

And coming from me, hermitting out the "Culture Wars" with my little pencil en mano...who woulda thunk it?

And just think, I was just thinking: "When is SOMEBODY going to write about Diane?!"
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There's more: http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=3738579&postID=111316779218900431

p.s. not a Chicanao application in all my stack, that I could discern, but one excellence Chicanesque poet was funded, to my knowledge

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