Poetry State Forest Bla_K

Poetry State Forest Bla_KBernadette Mayer Called a consummate poet by Robert Creeley and a poet of extraordinary inventiveness, erotic energy and challenge, and ironic intelligence by Michael Palmer, Bernadette Mayer can be found in all her variety in Poetry State Forest, which contains nature poems, sonnets, prose poetry, pastiches, long sequences, and epigrams.

Referencing lineages of poets

over fantasie

the gender binary

the original versions of both – the ‘Journal’ as written in the opening months of 1971

The centerpiece is the section 'Words and Spaces'

political and aesthetic liberty

— from Horace

heeft hem gemaakt tot de dichter die later liever ‘men’ dan ‘ik’ schreef en die

including maps from nineteenth-century New York and psy-ops leaflets dropped on Afghanistan after 9/11

while conversing with various historic and literary figures from the ancient Mediterranean and Mesopotamian worlds

zich onder te dompelen in de orale traditie

the poet proposes a rupture with the agreement of gendered language through the transcription of memory