[Andrew Frisardi]

Interesting about that conference in Mark's posting. Looking at the program for it brought to mind two other contemporary "philosophical" poets: Jorie Graham and Susan Stewart. I don't like Graham's poetry (some of her early stuff, actually, I like OK), and don't really know Stewart's. Adam Kirsch has been writing some philosophical stuff of late. And Tim Love mentioned Bonnefoy, a really fine poet.

That's right about recent philosophy, Mark: it's all in the head, a symptom of university politics and cultural exhaustion. With a few exceptions. Phenomenology is an aspect of modern philosophy that has a lot to do with poetry. Here's a good description of the phenomenological approach, by Henry Corbin. Corbin was the West's leading scholar of Islamic esotericism--he didn't teach "philosophy"--but by my lights, he was a true philosopher.

"The phenomenon is that which shows itself, that which is apparent and which in its appearance shows forth shoemthing which can reveal itself therein only by remaining concealed beneath the appearance. Something shows itself in the phenomenon and can show itself there only by remaining hidden. In the philosophical and religious sciences the phenomenon presents itself in those technical terms in which the element '-phany' from the Greek, figures: epiphany, theophany, hierophany, etc. The phenomenon, the Greek phainomenon, is the zâhir, the apparent, the external, the exoteric. What shows itself within this zâhir, while itself remaining concealed, is the bâtin, the interior, the esoteric. Phenomenology consists in 'saving the appearances,' saving the phenomenon, while disengaging or unveiling the hidden which shows itself beneath this appearance. The Logos or principle of the phenomenon, phenomenology, is thus to tell the hidden, the invisible present beneath the visible." (from his essay "The Concept of Comparative Philosophy," dated 1974)

This is what the poet does, even if the poem isn't explicitly "philosophical." A living poem is philosophical. Some go deeper and wider than others, but poetic rhythm, the part that can't be translated, is a breath of philosophy, of communion of some kind, regardless of the poem's surface intention.


[This message has been edited by Andrew Frisardi (edited August 30, 2008).]