Reflections of Projectivist Poetry

Food For Fire, Food For Thought – Robert Duncan

Maximus, to himself – Charles Olson

Not Ideas about the Thing but the Thing itself – Wallace Stevens

“Untitled” * (Added to making a Republic…)  - Charles Olson

Often I Am Permitted To Return To A Meadow – Robert Duncan

Anger – Robert Creeley

After A Long Illness – Robert Creeley

Structure of Rime XXV – Robert Duncan

Night Song for 2 Mystics – Robert Blackburn

The Third Dimension – Denise Levertov

As The Dead Prey Upon Us – Charles Olson

            The experience of interacting with these pieces of verse is distinctly an interaction, as the poem is the manifestation of the original, instantaneous energy and entity from what we deem the originator intertwining and communicating with the animate being, the being underneath the I that we have exalted to assume our substance, the being of the rhythmic vitality that originates from our living, animal, human form. These projectivists, experimental experientialists, utilize the impressionistic, boldly innate potential of the form, the line of a poem, its structure, to link the fading connection between human and human by using the concrete experience of phenomena as the communicator.

            A factor quick to rise into anticipated illumination is the method by which these projective poets utilize their breath for tangible expression. What has become evident by experiencing these poems is that the projectivist’s endeavor, to transfer their breath from themselves to be re-inspired and freshly experienced with the same force by the reader, is that they achieve their prospect in multi-dimensions by use of the syllable, liberty of the line, and form as an extension of content.

            Being experimental in nature, many projectivists, shatter/sacrifice conventional syntax and spelling to further their individual promptings. The most distinctive deviation of diction is the severance of vowels from their respective word. For instance, throughout the work of Black Mountain Poets yr takes the place of your, could becomes cld and should shld. In doing this, rather than squandering letters to expel a trite purpose, they brought the current of the flow of poetry into brevity of breath. Eliminating vowels, which are natural consequences of the breath, in particularly suggestive words of subjectivity (your, could, should) furthered the projectivist’s incentive to give flesh and objective, independent life to their works. The influential, powerful method deepened and broadened the communication between purpose and comprehension.

            Enjambment is perhaps the most evidently tangible structure that the projectivists utilized. Explicitly an extension of a line break, their use of enjambment correlates to their rhythmic breathing form. This aspect of their poetry allows for a melody to develop based on the breath units in which one manifests the verse. It acts as an extension of the poet’s voice, allowing the reader to bring the poem into solidity, maintaining an organic resemblance to the original creation of the poem from the projectivist’s intellect. Enjambment also constructs and directs tension continuously, pulling the reader mentally forward and backwards, and also eases the tension it fabricates by the natural rhythm that results. Along with enjambment, particular and careful use of punctuations and especially commas assist in extending and transposing the breath into script.

            Projective Verse does not hold a particular body of content; so much as it remains a canvas for writers to extend their unique experiences. The poems I read through were, although, predominantly concerned with the nature of reality underneath the superficiality of everyday existence, the nature of being, and the boundless prospect of man to manifest himself within the possibilities that he holds. Much of Creeley’s poetry dealt with love and the honesty of the nature of affection. Robert Duncan’s poetry is far more difficult to condense into a category of content. Duncan gives voice to aspects of existence that had remained tucked away underneath the realm of language. Charles Olson, as is apparent in his Maximus Poems, held a concentration towards the genuine interaction between the individual and it’s encompassing society and breathing reality.