tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post8502066526310087321..comments2023-04-10T14:29:56.153+01:00Comments on Raw Light: poetry & opinion since 2005: Brendan Kennelly: On Poetic InfluenceUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-51182796949343777182008-03-04T23:22:00.000+00:002008-03-04T23:22:00.000+00:00Ah yes, I remember that lecture now. I read it whe...Ah yes, I remember that lecture now. I read it when it first came out, and remember being horrid about it on the Poem forum. I imagine I was in a crappy mood that day. (Hard to believe, I know ... )Jane Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15590668593487445482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-51639940001071728372008-03-04T23:17:00.000+00:002008-03-04T23:17:00.000+00:00Thanks, Rob.Thanks, Rob.Jane Holland: Editorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12841007863029354079noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-62562562402168505292008-03-04T21:25:00.000+00:002008-03-04T21:25:00.000+00:00The full text of the Michael Schmidt lecture is at...The full text of the Michael Schmidt lecture is <A HREF="http://www.stanzapoetry.org/stanza06_archive/lecture06.htm" REL="nofollow">at this link.</A><BR/><BR/>He's partly responding to Neil Astley's notorious "poetry police" lecture of the year before.Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17046788730174617923noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-80939955675623919952008-03-04T12:44:00.000+00:002008-03-04T12:44:00.000+00:00I was in a cafe recently in a certain West Country...I was in a cafe recently in a certain West Country town and overheard A saying to B "I'm a poet, as you know, but no, I don't read other people's poetry. I don't want to be influenced." Of course I smirked, discreetly, ironically, into my cup of Assam.<BR/><BR/> On a previous trip to same town, I met a woman who told me (proudly) that she didn't read books because she wanted to have her own ideas, not other people's.<BR/><BR/> Nuff said.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-8672198897973925172008-03-04T09:50:00.000+00:002008-03-04T09:50:00.000+00:00Do you have a link for that Michael Schmidt quotat...Do you have a link for that Michael Schmidt quotation, Rob? It's great and I'd like to follow it up and read the rest, assuming it's available online.Jane Hollandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15590668593487445482noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-46766697468781490602008-03-04T09:26:00.000+00:002008-03-04T09:26:00.000+00:00Yes, as some people sometimes say about the 'irrel...Yes, as some people sometimes say about the 'irrelevance' of the past, 'we know so much more than them' - and as someone put it: 'Yes. And they are what we know.'Bohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10333815636018847583noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16608180.post-69347119891585232572008-03-04T07:56:00.000+00:002008-03-04T07:56:00.000+00:00Yes, I like the Kennelly quote a lot. It's complem...Yes, I like the Kennelly quote a lot. It's complemetary to what Michael Schmidt said in his 2006 lecture at the StAnza Festval:<BR/><BR/>"What we are includes, and depends upon, what we have been; what we have been can be changed not in pattern but in meaning by what we become. Life by the chronological clock versus life by values. Not to know what we are made of is not to know who we are, is possibly to fall victim to what we are made of. The poet who refuses to read other poetry for fear of being influenced has been influenced and will write without knowing how derivative the work is, for the ear is not innocent and memory is a faulty filter."Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17046788730174617923noreply@blogger.com