Language Poetry: A Response

Taking into account both Mohammad's "A Language Poetry Dossier" and Silliman's subsequent response, I believe I have come to a better understanding of language poetry, in so far as it allows the poet to understand its machination at all. But then again, is that correct? Correct to claim it has a machination, some secretive aim? I think it rather a thing unknowable, undefinable; it is in this very lack of definition that language poetry seems to possess its curious beauty and power. It is significant for its whimsical nature and the ability to toss form and definition aside; it seems very much the stuff of creative imagination, the raw fountainhead of any poetic enterprise. Language poetry relies upon nothing more than what an author perceives at a sound, at a collection of characters, at a lively image in a consuming instant. This is something I respect, to a degree, something vital and appropriate for its wild abandon, not unlike a mustang galloping o'er the plain; unbridled, it tosses its head at walls and fenses and thunders onward.

I look forward to exploring this further.