>Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 12:52:56 EST >From: Keith Tuma >Subject: Re: Irby's ear A public thanks to Ron Silliman for the example of and commentary on Ken Irby's work. I'm sometimes surprised that we don't get more of this on the list, what with all the poets subscribed. More micro-analysis of technique, that is. It's one way to make the disappeared reappear. One test of value in a poetic mode is its possibilities for refinement and extension, no? I'm thinking of Basil Bunting's remarks about Pound having provided a box of tools, making it possible to go on, and not by simple mimicry or imitation. Similarly, I'm thinking right now about the ways it might be possible to speak of "the new sentence" in Harryette Mullen's _Muse & Drudge_, what it means that she's crossed the new sentence with idioms and stanzas derived from the blues, r&b, etc, forced thoughtfulness about the stanza as unit back onto formal practices identified and explored by RS and others (if I'm right about this). (The stanza/strophe of Toner or Xing is not at all Mullen's, it seems to me.) Anyway, I for one would be grateful for more discussion of technique--and thanks again to Ron. Keith Tuma