Galloping Toward the Inexpressible (Michael Intro) | The Weekly Atticus (05/11/2019)

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The other day, I was chatting with a friend over a couple of cold-sweating beers when we started on the subject of writing. At one point, he told me about a poet I hadn’t heard of, mulling over which of her books he’d most strongly recommend, basically trying to sum up in casual conversation just what kind of style and power her words conveyed. What was interesting is that the harder he tried, the more he struggled. I understood that perfectly, because whenever I try to verbally recommend a certain writer in the real world, I end up sounding like a fumbling, inarticulate fanboy. Not a single quote springs to mind — even if I’ve gone through their books, underlining passages and dog-earring pages specifically so I could memorize them.It reminds me of a conversation I once overheard between a couple of literature professors when I was teaching in Indiana (okay, I didn’t overhear it myself; someone else did and told about it, and I’m stealing their story because that’s how writing works). One brought up how different contemporary poetry is from the Romantics, how much harder it is to commit to memory due to its more unusual rhythms and the general lack of rhyme. The other prof agreed and wondered aloud why people don’t still write like Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, etc. That question always makes me smile because as one of those crazy contemporary poets with weird rhythm and a total lack of rhyme, the answer is so obvious that, again, I find myself strangely unable to articulate it.And that brings me to my point: as writing evolves, I feel like each generation is galloping toward the inexpressible. We're achieving something that shouldn’t be possible, building off the work of the geniuses who came before us, perhaps losing more than a few friends along the way. We're surging deeper and deeper into the unknown, pushing all boundaries, touching on something indescribable which, paradoxically, proves the raw energy and vitality that language can convey. Believe me, I know how pretentious and poser-Zen this sounds, but as I get older, it bothers me less and less that I’m getting worse instead of better at nailing down the atomic structure of contemporary literature. My hope is that I'll live long enough that one day, when someone shoves a edgy modern poem or a boundary-pushing short story into my face and asks, “Why is this good?”, I’ll be wise and dumb enough to just look at them and smile.Thanks for reading. We're glad you're here.Michael MeyerhoferPoetry Editor 

ATTICUS NEWS

YOU HEARD RIGHT!It's our 2nd Annual CNF contest...Deadline is July 21st. First prize is $400!Final judge is Ira Sukrungruang.

THIS WEEK AT ATTICUS

Turn over a new leaf and readFeral Town by Adam Gustavson:HERMES

BOOK REVIEWPOETRY MY DAD WOULD LIKE, AND WHY THAT'S A GOOD THINGA Review of CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST by Danny Caine from Mason Jar PressReview by Maria C. Goodson"Continental Breakfast takes you on a trip, styrofoam cup of coffee in hand, your destination — belly laughs and nostalgia. And a Waffle House."READ ON

FICTIONTREASURESby Łukasz Drobnik"I am twenty-three, listen to death metal, and my hair is dyed ruby red and woven into plaits. This evening — in what will start as a trivial conversation — Dad will call me a monster."READ ON

POETRYIN MY DESERTby Natalie Homer"The pastor asks us to stand. The coronaswings. A chapel is a dry creek bed &baptism means drowning secondhand."READ ON

NONFICTIONSAPIOSEXUAL: A DERVISH ESSAYby Lindsey Novak"He played guitar—but not like my acoustic blonde wood Ibanez, on which I’d clumsily fretted and fingered Stairway to Heaven, sort of, since my May birthday..."READ ON

VIDEOPOETRYHIS WIFE REFLECTS / YOU ASK TOO MUCHTwo videopoems by Hannah van DiddenDo try the meat: it's delicious.READ ON

FILM REVIEWSAME OLD SONG AND DANCE: TELLING KILLERS' STORIESA look at Joe Berlinger's EXTREMELY WICKED, SHOCKINGLY EVIL, AND VILE by Alison Lanier"And so goes a rare movie that promised us a serial killer without the killer’s emotional life as its focus."READ ON

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