Not poetry at the margins, but literally, poetry written in the margins of books as the author was reading. Some characteristics: usually short, written as a response to the reading at hand, and cryptic, especially if the “target” is not identified in the title or somewhere in the text. I was fortunate enough to have been able to xerox Cid Corman’s annotated copy of Oppen’s collected. As well as identifying many of Oppen’s sources, the book also contains about 50 marginal poems, and what I’d like to call embryonic poems, somewhere between annotations and poems. I’ll share some of these in future notes.

Another poet who appears to do this is David Jaffin. Interestingly enough, Jaffin appears to be a kind of shaggier, and more allusive shadow of Corman. Both were published by Elizabeth Press back in the 1970s. Both practice the same subtle manipulations of syntax and use penny words to make dollar thoughts, albeit Jaffin is not quite as good at it as Corman was, in my opinion. Jaffin also uses captalization and the lack of punctuation to his own detriment, with capitals obtruding at awkward times in the flow of the poem, and sentences and stanzas flowing willy nilly into each other. Perhaps the capitalization has something to do with his living in Germany, or perhaps both of these eccentricities are a rather late tipping of the hand in the direction of e.e. cummings, but it feels gratuitous, and, in my opinion, takes away rather than adds to the effect.

This is not to say that Jaffin is not an interesting writer and a good poet. I have his A Voice Awakened (Shearsman Press) here before me as I write, and will include several of his poems.

Sleep

wakes me a
light Candles

of impercep
tible quiet

tude as waves
woven in

to a time
less shore.

A thirst for Words

There’s

a thirst
for words

Like
the need for

splitting
wood to that

coldness
of fore-

telling

hands.

Wheel-chaired

to her help
less fin

ding feet’
s Eyes rest

lessly a
bandoned their

permanent
ly ground-

place.

At the Psyvhoanalysts

Dr. W.

sat listen
ing.

Dr. W.
longer than
his look
could appear
sedately self-
encompassing
sat listen
ing.

Dr. W.
attempting
a smile that
could quite
break out
from the ser
iousness of
the situation
arose The way
Gluck’s heroes
do in a semi-
operatic sit
uation.

I especially like the portrait of W., but wonder why Jaffin does not hyphenate correctly in a consistent manner, as he appears to choose to do so with semi-operatic, but not, for instance, with the word situation.

A similar sensibility seems to be at work behind Corman and Jaffin’s poems. It would have been interesting to have listened in to whatever conversations they may have held via letters or in their dreams, as they surely knew/know of each other’s work. I’ll see if I can answer this question.

As I was writing this the postwoman rang the doorbell with an incredible package: Blythe’s Haiku, Vol. 2, 3, and 4–the seasons! I’d purchased Blythe’s volume on Haiku the Eastern background and brought it with me on the plane when I came to Japan in 1992 and finished it during those early, stressful months when I visited Mr. Donuts in Issahaya, Nagasaki Presfecture several times a day. These are wonderful books.