{"id":12534,"date":"2014-11-19T09:48:18","date_gmt":"2014-11-19T13:48:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/?p=12534"},"modified":"2014-11-19T09:48:18","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T13:48:18","slug":"ken-irby-78","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/ken-irby-78\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Irby @ 78!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ken<\/a>

Ken Irby at home in Lawrence, pointing out a book I’m looking for.<\/p><\/div>\n

Yesterday was\u00a0Ken Irby’s 78th birthday, and I’m extremely happy to announce that the Jacket2<\/i> special feature (edited by Kyle Waugh\u00a0&\u00a0Billy Joe Harris) is now live. Happy Birthday, Ken!\u00a0This feature devoted to the work of Kenneth Irby collects a number of papers delivered at the 2011 colloquium devoted to Irby in Lawrence, Kansas, along with new essays by Robert Bertholf, Dale Smith, Matthew Hofer, and others; a chronology, a poem by Nathaniel Tarn, some uncollected Irby poems, a selection of letters between Irby and Ed Dorn, and a cluster of former student musings; and sound recordings from the Lawrence symposium, including readings by Irby.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here the opening shot of the Festschrift, the introduction by Billy Joe Harris, followed by the table of contents:<\/p>\n

\n

Although Kenneth Irby, a distinguished innovative poet, has recently become better known, he deserves to be much better known than he presently is. In 2009 he published a massive book of poems, The Intent On: Collected Poems, 1962\u20132006<\/em>, which for the first time provided easy access to the full body of his work and ample evidence of how productive he has been over the years. Before this book, I think, few people realized how prolific he has been. Furthermore, in 2010 he won the prestigious Shelley Memorial Award of the Poetry Society of America. Among other notable winners have been Lyn Hejinian, Robert Pinsky, Anne Sexton, Marianne Moore, and E. E. Cummings \u2014 big books and awards help writers get established, especially awards. Awards, beyond giving writers a little money, make them visible. Ken isn\u2019t better known \u2014 that is, isn\u2019t better known beyond a relatively small group of fellow avant-gardists and poetry connoisseurs \u2014 for a number of reasons. Coming from the American postwar avant-garde tradition, in particular, the New American Poetry, his friends and supporters do not give out the major prizes (which make one major \u2014 yes, it\u2019s that simple). Ken has been happy with and loyal to his friends and the little presses that usually publish him, and finally, he has not tried to push himself into the literary big time: he is not a literary operator. But we feel that his work has been kept nearly secret long enough. Clearly, he is entitled to be more celebrated, and moreover, the poetry public would greatly benefit from being exposed to this learned, musical, and compassionate poet.<\/p>\n

To gain a general sense of Irby\u2019s poetry, let\u2019s look at the opening paragraph of Lyn Hejinian\u2019s essay \u201cWe might say poetry,\u201d included in this feature, about this Irby poem. Hejinian says:<\/p>\n

First, it is a landscape poem \u2014 or, to put it in more current terms, it is a site-specific work; it bestows specificity on a particular locale, and in so doing it projects forth from its site a multilayered and emotionally-complex geocultural vision. Second, it is notable for its intimacy of address; one feels one is sharing not only a moment but the affective memories, sensations, and feelings that characterize that moment. And third, it radiates love.<\/p>\n

In this brief description of one Irby poem, Hejinian captures the general character of his poetry: it is local, it is intimate, and it radiates love. Ben Friedlander in his essay, \u201cThe Walk to the Paradise,\u201d a reading of another Irby poem, helps the reader understand the phenomenological nature of Irby\u2019s poetry \u2014 it is a poetry of attention where language makes \u201ccontact with the real.\u201d In short, Irby writes a homely but luminous ongoing epic of the everyday world of the here and now: of friends, of dreams, of music and reflection.<\/p>\n

Since Irby is both an intellectual and personal poet, one preoccupied with many notions as well as the quotidian moment, there are many names the reader needs to know to fully appreciate his work. There is the UC-Berkeley cultural geographer, Carl Sauer, and the University of Kansas Western and Plains historian, James C. Malin \u2014 these two scholars undergird much of Irby\u2019s meditations on geography, a main topic of his. Then there is the long list of poets who figure into his life \u2014 his life of the mind and of his poetry \u2014 both famous and little-known. Some are the New American poets: Charles Olson, a father figure; Ed Dorn, Robert Creeley, and Robert Duncan \u2014 all close friends; another close friend, the Gloucester, Massachusetts poet, Gerrit Lansing; and the two Kansas poets: John Moritz, Lawrence poet and small publisher of Irby as well as others, and Ronald Johnson, the Topeka and San Francisco experimental epic poet. To fully enter Irby\u2019s poetic universe we need to become friends with his friends and intellectual heroes.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, November 5, 2011, there was a colloquium in Lawrence, Kansas, celebrating Ken Irby\u2019s seventy-fifth birthday and his career. The scholar-poets Lyn Hejinian, Pierre Jorris, Ben Friedlander, Denise Low, and Joe Harrington delivered cogent papers discussing Irby\u2019s work \u2014 all have been published here. Moreover, additional essays by Robert Bertholf, Robert Grenier, Dale Smith, Matthew Hofer, Aldon Nielsen, and Andrew Schelling; a chronology, a poem by Nathaniel Tarn, some uncollected Irby poems, a selection of letters between Irby and Ed Dorn, and a cluster of former student musings have been added. The students, Cyrus Console, Kyle Waugh, Peter Longofono, Jeff Bergfalk, and Monica Peck, have been included because teaching is integral to Ken\u2019s mission: his job is not only to help young writers become better writers but also to help them engage in adventures of the mind and the arts. Moreover, from the conference we are also including a sound recording of Low, Hejinian, Joris, Friedlander, and Harrington reading from their work and the culminating event of the day, where Ken reads from his oeuvre. Following classical tradition, at the end of the reading Lyn Hejinian crowned Ken with laurel. She did this as the renowned classicist and translator, Stan Lombardo, recited the last few lines of Horace\u2019s Odes<\/em> I.30. First in Latin:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sume superbian
\nquaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica
\nlauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.<\/p>\n

and then in English:<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Take this just pride
\nas your honor, Melpomene, and wreathe
\nmy hair with laurel, a Delphic crown.<\/p>\n

There are two areas I wish the special feature had covered which it hasn\u2019t: Irby\u2019s journals, the source of his poems, and his involvement with music, a joy in his life and a source of his own poetry. Moreover, even though Denise Low in these pages has initiated the study of Irby\u2019s artwork in her survey of his glyphs and drawings, there needs to be more work done in this area. To not look at his designs and pictures is like discussing the poetry of William Blake or Kenneth Patchen while ignoring their art; that is, you are missing a great deal of the story.\u00a0I hope these rich topics, in addition to many others, make it into another issue of a journal devoted to the work of Kenneth Irby.<\/p>\n

Since Ken Irby should be ranked with such contemporary figures as Amiri Baraka, Robert Creeley, Lyn Hejinian, Ed Dorn, Robert Duncan, and Rae Armantrout, I hope this feature will cause a bit of a stir, and help introduce this important poet to a larger audience. This audience needs this gentle but commanding presence.<\/p>\n

\u2014 William J. Harris<\/p>\n

\"Sunflower<\/a>

Sunflower drawn by Lee Chapman<\/p><\/div>\n

\n
\n
\n
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS<\/a>\u2014KYLE WAUGH<\/span><\/div>\n
‘ARISE AND UNBUILD IT AGAIN’<\/a>\u2014KYLE WAUGH<\/span><\/div>\n
KENNETH LEE IRBY: A CHRONOLOGY<\/a>\u2014KYLE WAUGH<\/span><\/div>\n
FOR MISTER IRBY, ‘MERICAN MASTER<\/a>\u2014NATHANIEL TARN<\/span><\/div>\n
‘WE MIGHT SAY POETRY’<\/a>\u2014LYN HEJINIAN<\/span><\/div>\n
ON KENNETH IRBY’S ‘THE INTENT ON: COLLECTED POEMS, 1962\u20132006’<\/a>\u2014ROBERT BERTHOLF<\/span><\/div>\n
ON EVALUATION, REFLECTION, AND REVELATION<\/a>\u2014MATTHEW HOFER<\/span><\/div>\n
THE DAY THE SIXTIES BECAME THE SEVENTIES<\/a>\u2014ALDON LYNN NIELSEN<\/span><\/div>\n
KANSAS AND\/OR OZ<\/a>\u2014JOSEPH HARRINGTON<\/span><\/div>\n
KENNETH IRBY’S HOMECOMING<\/a>\u2014DALE SMITH<\/span><\/div>\n
ON KENNETH IRBY AND ‘CATALPA’<\/a>\u2014ANDREW SCHELLING<\/span><\/div>\n
SENSORY TYPE\/TOPOGRAPHIES<\/a>\u2014DENISE LOW<\/span><\/div>\n
IRBY’S VERY OWN NORTH ATLANTIC TURBINE<\/a>\u2014PIERRE JORIS<\/span><\/div>\n
THE WALK TO THE PARADISE GARDEN<\/a>\u2014BENJAMIN FRIEDLANDER<\/span><\/div>\n
FOR KENNETH IRBY \/ THE INTENT ON (JANUARY\u2013MAY 2012)<\/a>\u2014ROBERT GRENIER<\/span><\/div>\n
NINETEEN POEMS<\/a>\u2014KYLE WAUGH<\/span><\/div>\n
KENNETH IRBY VISITS CARL O. SAUER AND JAMES C. MALIN<\/a>\u2014KEN IRBY<\/span><\/div>\n
TWELVE LETTERS FROM KENNETH IRBY TO EDWARD DORN<\/a>\u2014KYLE WAUGH<\/span><\/div>\n
INTO FRIENDSHIP AND POETRY WITH KENNETH IRBY<\/a>\u2014MONICA\/NICO PECK<\/span><\/div>\n
[ON KEN IRBY]<\/a>\u2014PETER LONGOFONO<\/span><\/div>\n
“STUDY IS THE GATE”: A CONVERSATION ABOUT KEN IRBY<\/a>\u2014CYRUS CONSOLE<\/span><\/div>\n
“YET ANOTHER ORDER \/ OF THE CLOSENESS WE HAD FOUND”<\/a>\u2014JEFFREY BERGFALK<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\"Ken<\/a>

Ken Irby in London, circa 1974<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was\u00a0Ken Irby’s 78th birthday, and I’m extremely happy to announce that the Jacket2 special feature (edited by Kyle Waugh\u00a0&\u00a0Billy Joe Harris) is now live. Happy Birthday, Ken!\u00a0This feature devoted to the work of...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,1114,64,90,91],"tags":[977,1594,1595],"class_list":["post-12534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism","category-homage","category-literature","category-poetics","category-poetry","tag-ken-irby","tag-kyle-waugh","tag-william-joe-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12534"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12541,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12534\/revisions\/12541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pierrejoris.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}