Poetry Readers Challenge discussion

(Background: Andrei Dósa is considered one of the most important young Romanian poets of the last few years. He is one of the relatively few poets who were "trained" in a proper "creative writing" workshop (something which, for instance, my university does not have). His first volume, entitled „Atunci când va veni ceea ce este desăvârșit” (="When that which is perfect is come", quote from the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13:10), was initially rejected at the most hyped debut contest, but, after being published through other means, receives... an award for the best debut of the year 2011. As a consequence, his second volume appeared at C.R. (The Romanian Book), the publishing house which organized the aforementioned contest...

I am not jealous on Dósa though :) In his place I would be near crushed by the amount of hype received - literates in Romania are often rather jealous and I know people who demolished a certain book just because a critic wrote on the back cover that it is the most awaited volume [of poetry] of the year... Such a shame.)



Poorly-made (only a few days in the book store and some pages are already flying) and overpriced edition. Otherwise, it is a pretty good volume, even though, I must admit, there is something about the poems that doesn't feel quite right to me. At times I have the impression that it's very "by the numbers" - fortunately, it's not another Ginsbergian or Bukowskian epigonic attempt, but it's still monochromatic, all about the alienation of work and of technology in a place of overwhelming "liberty". It does that (and probably some will find satisfying these flaws), but it leaves me wanting something less "take it as it is".

Some of the poems look like sleek experiments (if that was the sole intention, then congratulations) done in a creative writing laboratory. Predictability alert: "the gps shows a romanian city/zoom the outskirts/zoom/the cemetery" - and look, a new rhetoric is born.

For what it's worth, Dósa is more credible than other recent attempts of hi-tech "minimalism", but this book feels limited and (paradoxically) with a feeble structure. Which means that, on a second attempt, he could make a much better "American Experience". This - just my opinion though.

P.S. I've reflected a bit more... Another reader said to me that he doesn't like the book either, because "it looks like it could have been anywhere but in the USA". Well, a critic appreciated American Experience because he has "the talent to work with major existential stakes under the appearance of a creative writing exercise" and that he manages to avoid the cliches of Ginsberg and Bukowski and a cheap "cool" attitude (though it is my impression that Dósa is instead simply cold). I don't remember where I have read that Dósa should be appreciated for the fact that this volume is a milestone of the demise of the "American dream". A friend of mine was as well on job in the USA and claims to have liked and understood the volume...

Thanks for reviewing, Yigru. I kind of like the expression "hi-tech minimalism," though what exactly that it I don't know. I do dislike poems when they seem like workshop experiments the writer couldn't keep to him/herself, but I do try to keep in mind Wallace Stevens' saying "every poem is an experimental poem."
I'm interested if the poet lives in America, since the subject seems to be the failure of the American dream.
This seemed like an interesting read to me from your review - I only regret we can't read one of the poems.
thanks
sarah

Thank you for your interest. No, for Andrei Dósa it was just a work and travel experience, he still lives here, in Romania.

"Hi-tech" has pretty obviously to do with the use of IT references of any kind in poetry - but some poets use it just a novelty, while others are simply determined to express the alienation of the new technological human. Dmitri Miticov is a better example than Dósa in this regard, but I'm not sure right now if I have reviewed his latest book.

"Minimalism" is a term that is thrown a lot by critics nowadays, nobody gave so far a definition in Romanian poetry, but I'm pretty sure that here it implies not only the minimal amount of words and use of stylistic devices, but also a certain viewpoint of the poetic ego that is more or less reduced to basic aspects and primary instincts, moving about in a world lacking metaphysics... a very concrete and miserable perspective of the daily life, not an abstract purism like in minimalist painting. Few poets fit exactly this niche, but nowadays many use elements of minimalism, in spite of the skepticism of certain critics and readers... Dósa isn't associated only with minimalism either, so nevermind.

I will try now to translate for you a poem from the book:

i've seen america (clock in - clock out)

i've recomposed the menu of the day
from the food left-overs
i've seen the ocean
in the tanks with lobsters
i've locked myself in the laundry
to look through the window
at the lightning bolts and at the highway
the harley motorcycles ridden
by big-bellied retirees [their] heads adorned
with washed-out tufts of hair
dug out of hippie graves
flapping in the ocean breeze
we swam in dishwater together
seahorses of gristle plankton of pepper
and other spices the carcasses of lobsters
little exotic animals which were secreting an
oily cold liquid foam bleaching smell
garnet light
squat next to the dishwasher
i was grating the left-overs on the trays
my saliva was a sort of pre-wash liquid for dishes
my pants were slipping down
the hunkers were lighting the kitchen the stainless steel cupboards
the smoky cooker hoods the fridges
i said "bună" and "ce faci" and "hello" and "what's up"
waitresses then I gave up
they were coming to take orders in the kitchen
they were carefully filling the trays with steamy dishes
tableware glasses napkins without a word
like nurses preparing the instruments
and drugs necessary
for healing stomachs aching of acid
on the line the dishes and bowls were coming
on the line their dirty hands were coming
and i was lingeringly cleaning them
and "bună" and "ce faci" and "hello" and "what's up"
and they
were letting their hair down and joining hands
dancing around the big tips
around the yacts islands
clubs and beaches around the boss sons
and when they were getting tired
they were pecking at pieces of pinapples
apple chips creating their own salads
and i was moping the traces of their bare feet


(Not sure if I found the right tense... I used to be a lot better at English a few years ago, I'm afraid.)

Perhaps it's a milestone of the demise of the "American Dream" that is still held by those who live outside the U.S., but the disillusionment with it within the U.S. is often traced back to T.S. Eliot's work at the beginning of the 20th Century.

We have some of the same contentiousness with our poetry publications, grants and contests that you mention occurs in Romania--except that the "fame" of a poet here is so minor that it hardly amounts to pressure. The only high-profile award I can think of in the U.S. is being named Poet Laureate. Then people are watching you. But there still isn't much in the way of hype.

Thank you for the translation! I find myself lukewarm about the poem. I don't dislike it but I also don't particularly like it. It does feel like ground that's been covered before.

I still don't have an exact idea what kind of public you can get as a contemporary poet in the U.S. - I heard that, on one hand, there is the academic poetry, while on the other hand there is (more or less) commercial poetry that has some public, but which can never compete on the "best-seller" charts.

(The poet Iulian Tănase made a humorous prose poem called Best Sailor, named after the main character, "a poet with impeccable killer instincts" who takes an issue of The New York Times Book Review (in which there is no best-seller volume of poetry whatsoever) and uses a knife to cut a collage, while the texts goes into a stream of consciousness...)

The rough equivalent of Poet Laureate we have here is Mihai Eminescu Opera Omnia, but it is usually awarded to long-standing poets with more than 3-4 decades of books under their belt. The award gets little publicity outside the very restrained cultural mass-media (which grows thinner and thinner each year). Last year the only comments the articles on the award received were complaining about the nomination of Mircea Cărtărescu - but on every article that mentions Cărtărescu there are "trolls" who mock him for his political views... (And Cărtărescu only got this famous after switching to prose.)

The problem is that, only a few decades ago, the Communist regime relied on poets in such a degree that, with several poems published (and passed through censorship, of course) in one of the numerous literary magazines, one could have easily rented or bought an apartment, not sure right now, but, anyway, writers used to have a lot of priviledges. On national TV or on the stadion people could (actually, many times they had no choice) watch the show organized by the poet Adrian Păunescu (one of his volumes was apparently printed in 200.000 copies or so, world record for a single edition according to some sources). When he died a few years ago, he was mourned for days on TV (but that happens with just about every national or international star ever since Michael Jackson, it's a new trick in the manipulation book) and many would come and say that he was the biggest (or second biggest after Eminescu) Romanian poet... he was in only one way: an almost-complete edition of his poetry, "The Book of Books of Poetry", contains over 1700 pages!...

I was born after 1989, after the distribution of books suffered a predictable meltdown, so I find hard to imagine a period when people actually read poetry. The national TV had a (badly promoted) Cultural channel, but it was closed a few years ago - and there are a thousand other bad things happening to culture in this country because people don't care about something unless there is some money in or out of it.

Yes, thanks for translating (no small task). Personally I kind of like it, esp. that swim in the dishwater.