by Vasiliki Katsarou
This spring, just before she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her poetry, I went to hear Rae Armantrout read and discuss her work with Zen priest and poet Norman Fischer. The program was organized by Poets House in New York, at its new, glistening home in Battery Park City. The evening program was entitled “Lyric Persuasions”and its purpose was to discuss the contemporary lyric poem.
Armantrout is a West Coast poet who has been peripherally attached to the Language Poetry movement. In recent years, there has been a development in her poetry towards an exquisite collage of “found language.” From her latest book, VERSED:
The outer world means
State Farm Donuts Tae Kwando?
Thoughts as spent fuel rods.
—from “Outer”
The child fights cancer
with the help
of her celebrity fan club,
says,
“Now I know how hard it is
to be a movie star.”
*
“Hey,
my avatar’s not working!”
—from“Operations”
