Loss

by Benjamin Friedlander

Poetry. ."I was born a year after Wieners' first collection was published, THE HOTEL WENTLEY POEMS, and can't vouch for the accuracy of that book's depiction of 1950's bohemian life. Access may not be the right word anyhow to describe what it takes to read this poet. Dramatic to a fault, Wieners' work stages a gaudy spectacle of life: stages, and thus maintains at a distance. Identify? The poet as actor seduces and evades identification all at once. Seduces, by arousing sympathy, awe, desire. Evades, by remaining mysteriuos, out of reach, a trick of anxious language"-from LOSS.

16 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

I'm a poet, critic, and editor, and make my living teaching American Studies and Poetics at the University of Maine. I'm also a dabbler in translation, from German (with a dictionary, making a lot of errors) and Italian (with my wife, who is a native speaker).

Reviews

[Benjamin]

An essay on John Wieners, with passing reference to identity politics, eavesdropping, the poetics of address, shared experience...and loss.