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Tony Lopez taught me on my MA course. I remember attending
my first class and being given a poem by Tom Raworth and another by Rae
Armantrout to discuss in student groups. I also remember the tutor's
exasperation at our pitiful attempts at deconstructing the work! That first
poetry seminar was for me the start of a long period of questioning and
engaging with poetics and my own creative writing practice, opening my eyes
to the possibilities of textual play and manipulation, of just what can be
done with language. I stopped writing for several months at one point as a
result, not only to read around the subject, but because I felt I didn't know
how to write what I wanted to write any more.
One of the wonderful things about Meaning Performance is just how lucid and approachable, how
common-sensical Lopez's essays are, even when dealing with the most complex
poetry, such as that of J.H. Prynne. Although thoroughly researched and
carefully referenced, these are not dry academic expositions, these are
enthused and informed, delightful and delighted, deconstructions of their
wide-ranging subjects, rooted in the practice of poetry, not just abstract
theory.
Lopez's book on W.S. Graham remains one of the reference books on the author, Meaning
Performance offers three further discussions of his poetry: one on the
poetic relationship between Graham and T.S. Eliot; one on Graham and the
1940s, with particular reference to Dylan Thomas; the third on his
relationship to the art world of St Ives. Elsewhere, Ted Berrigan's Sonnets and other poems from the 1960s are carefully
explored and considered, and Ezra Pound's 'Cathay' is looked at anew.
Issues of abstraction, innovation and modernism are also explored, often in
relation to national identity and/or the transference of poetics and
processes between different nations Ð particularly America and England. Lee
Harwood and John Ashbery's relationship is considered as a carrier of ideas,
and their influence discussed; as is Pound's influence on Postmodern British
poets. Graham, of course, raises issues to do with regionalism [in Cornwall]
and nationality with regard to the cultural and political relationship
between Scotland and England; the latter is also considered in the case of
Thomas A. Clark. Lopez also writes about Bunting's use of dialect, along with
regional vocabulary and idioms, in 'Briggflats'.
Everywhere there is a welcome matter-of-factness and approachability in the
way Lopez scrutinises poems and writers. The reader is simply not allowed to
find Andrew Crozier's, Tom Raworth's or Bob Perelman's work hard to
understand, s/he is simply plunged into clear critical engagement with the
structure, form and content. Lopez's abilities at deduction, informed by his
wide reading and careful thought, along with his own poetry, are astonishing,
and show how close reading skills can be applied to the most fractured or
complex writing. The one example of his own writing on show here - 'Sequel
Lines', a long poem collaged from research papers quotes at a Pound
conference - is both engaging and witty.
This forthright discussion and dissection of poetry, poetics and poetic
practice, is to be welcomed. I look forward to further volumes in Salt's
Reconstruction series, as well as future poetry and critical writing from
Tony Lopez
© Rupert Loydell 2006
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