Newsletter #7: Duncan, Olson, Levertov, Black Mountain College

Sep 7

Three Sentences to Imitate and Study

Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow

as if it were a scene made-up by the mind,
that is not mine, but is a made place,

that is mine, it is so near to the heart,
an eternal pasture folded in all thought
so that there is a hall therein

that is a made place, created by light
wherefrom the shadows that are forms fall.

- Robert Duncan, “Often I Am Permitted to Return to a Meadow”

II.

As the dead prey upon us, / they are the dead in ourselves, / awake, my sleeping ones, I cry out to you, / disentangle the nets of being!

- Charles Olson, “As the Dead Prey Upon Us”

III.

Two girls discover / the secret of life / in a sudden line of / poetry.

- Denise Levertov, “The Secret”

Two Quotes by Black Mountain College Poets

“What never changes is your desire to change”

- Charles Olson

II.

“What a great thing! To be a writer! Words are something you can carry in your head. You can really 'travel light.’”

- Robert Creeley

This Week’s Writing Prompt/Tip

When I was in graduate school I studied a lot of modern and post-modern poetry. Sure, most of it was over my head, but there were a select few that really stood out to me: Robert Duncan, Robert Creeley, Charles Olson, Denise Levertov. Their poems were challenging, yet accessible; ordinary yet philosophical; engaging yet distant. A few weeks ago I came across this great article in the New York Times about the lasting legacy of Black Mountain College. It was a one-of-kind integrated and interdisciplinary arts college that I believe is a model that should be studied and applied today.

Why Are We Still Talking About Black Mountain College?

An Introduction to Black Mountain Poets

Let me know if you’ve read or enjoyed any Black Mountain poets in the Comments section below.

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