Response

by Juliana Spahr

Response is a gathering of five works which together bring into play some of the very elements which allow us to utilize poetry's powers - open-endedness (option) and specificity, mindfulness and provocation, intelligence and an invitation to invention. It is possible to read the 'response' of the title in reference to the poems and to take them as answers to calls and queries from the world. But it is equally and simultaneously possible to regard the works as themselves incitements to response. Reading these edgy, beautiful, and smart works is not passive nor summary but 'in answer,' and that, in turn, means that one reads them 'in excitement.'

Genres: Poetry

97 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2000

About the author

Juliana Spahr (born 1969) is an American poet, critic, and editor. She is the recipient of the 2009 Hardison Poetry Prize awarded by the Folger Shakespeare Library to honor a U.S. poet whose art and teaching demonstrate great imagination and daring.

Both Spahr's critical and scholarly studies, i.e., Everybody’s Autonomy: Connective Reading and Collective Identity (2001), and her poetry have shown Spahr's commitment to fostering a "value of reading" as a communal, democratic, open process. Her work therefore "distinguishes itself because she writes poems for which her critical work calls." In addition to teaching and writing poetry, Spahr is also an active editor. Spahr received the National Poetry Series Award for her first collection of poetry, Response (1996).

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's out of print but you can still get a free PDF at http://www.ubu.com/ubu/index_fall03.html

[Elizabeth Metzger · Rating 2 out of 5]

call me old fashioned but I want a text's language to captivate me as much as its concept, and to perform as well as the concept it is, well, trying to perform. not happening for me yet...

(and didn't. quit.)

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refer to http://askirtaround.blogspot.com/2007...

for my review.