mark young has tagged me with a request for my list of the 10 most influentional books on my writing. i'll try, but i can't help thinking this list will be of the 10 books that come most readily to mind.
1. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
2. Charles Bernstein's Content's Dream
3. Susan Howe's The Europe of Trust
4. Giuseppe Ungaretti's Life of a Man
5. Denise Levertov's Overland to the Islands (Really all of her books. When I originally read her work, I went through all of existing collections at once.)
6. Anselm Hollo's Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence
7. Antonio Porta's Metropolis (Really his collection Poesie 1956-1988)
8. Dante's Vita Nuova (and the Comedy, but my most recent book, hopefully forthcoming soon with Meritage Press has a long poem based on the Vita Nuova)
9. e. e. cummings' 100 Selected Poems
10. Pablo Neruda's Canto general
That's 10, but it's hard to imagine my work without the influence of other writers like Vicente Huidobro, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Eugenio Montale, Sappho, H.D., Nicanor Parra, Sheila Murphy, W. B. Yeats, John Berryman, Ron Silliman, Charles Olson, Clark Coolidge, Lyn Hejinian, Anna Akhmatova, and Kurt Schwitters. Also, so many close friends who are writers like Garin Cycholl, Ray Bianchi, Simone Muench, and Kristy Odelius have majorly influenced the way that I write. After I worked on my first collaboration with Garin Cycholl, I felt like a changed person, like I had just finished working with the master.
I'd like to tag Anny Ballardini (especially since the next post I write will be on a tag from her about 10 movies), Chris Murray, and Tim Yu (you're blog has been too quiet lately!).
1. Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass
2. Charles Bernstein's Content's Dream
3. Susan Howe's The Europe of Trust
4. Giuseppe Ungaretti's Life of a Man
5. Denise Levertov's Overland to the Islands (Really all of her books. When I originally read her work, I went through all of existing collections at once.)
6. Anselm Hollo's Notes on the Possibilities and Attractions of Existence
7. Antonio Porta's Metropolis (Really his collection Poesie 1956-1988)
8. Dante's Vita Nuova (and the Comedy, but my most recent book, hopefully forthcoming soon with Meritage Press has a long poem based on the Vita Nuova)
9. e. e. cummings' 100 Selected Poems
10. Pablo Neruda's Canto general
That's 10, but it's hard to imagine my work without the influence of other writers like Vicente Huidobro, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Eugenio Montale, Sappho, H.D., Nicanor Parra, Sheila Murphy, W. B. Yeats, John Berryman, Ron Silliman, Charles Olson, Clark Coolidge, Lyn Hejinian, Anna Akhmatova, and Kurt Schwitters. Also, so many close friends who are writers like Garin Cycholl, Ray Bianchi, Simone Muench, and Kristy Odelius have majorly influenced the way that I write. After I worked on my first collaboration with Garin Cycholl, I felt like a changed person, like I had just finished working with the master.
I'd like to tag Anny Ballardini (especially since the next post I write will be on a tag from her about 10 movies), Chris Murray, and Tim Yu (you're blog has been too quiet lately!).
Comments