[Michael F]

Thanks for your response, Sam. I do feel like I’m getting a ‘hook’ into JG, thanks in no small part to you and Rogerbob. This has been interesting.

I can only say wrt the trope of the bird that it suggested itself to me; and I was set down the path of economics, values and injustice by the opening indignation and reference to the financial crisis and money, as I read it. My imagination did the rest…

More broadly, it strikes me that, like some Ab Ex painters, what JG is doing is moving the fulcrum of the lever or balance between text and public much closer to the public; as mentioned above, the reader must do the ‘heavy lifting’ and supply much of the meaning. This implies greater activity, more imagination on the part of the reader. Such an approach often works for me in Ab Ex painting; why can’t poetry do the same thing? This also seems to me very PoMo, very modern Lit Crit: there is little or no ‘fixed meaning’ to the text, there is only our interpretation of the text. At the limit, I think this breaks down into absurdity – but the fulcrum can be moved a great distance before that happens. It’s a creative approach, I think. When well done, it's engaging and fun. This one certainly gave me a window into my preoccupations. Good discussion.

M