Hey folks, I went to hear David Abel read at Blue Danube the other night, saw Andrew there. I think David is maybe an A Tonalist, too. Particularly, he writes as if "Every step's on someone buried" and knowledge of this culminates in "strata of disappearance" and seems interested in what I think of as notions of place as it corresponds to the music of a poem, or a sort of "world feeling," history or memory as a place where sort of transhuman psychology takes place.


Sunset makes the windows
music    lights the sequence
so    there is a code

and a precipice--
the basin is inviting
as on a holiday

history seems poetic
grave
but sustaining--

a soapy taste on the tongue
independent of the music
or the prospect

Anyway, I didn't know David's work until then, but I'm becoming a fan of his BLACK VALENTINE. One thing that appeals to me is that it doesn't seem like a book written for a particular audience (not that such a thing is bad), but he doesn't seem to lament being trapped in particular language games or anything, but is more interested in moments when "objects have their/ edges again."

Another thought re: A Tonalism. I'm not sure if this is Laura's intention exactly, but I'm attracted to the idea of floating a name for a concept, say, a tonalism, and then using blog space to engage in talk & exchanges of work to discover whether the "name" can make affinities become visible in work that isn't necessarily written from within a particular community already. To me, I'm not really interesting in having a "brand" exactly, but in discovering whether or not something I'm doing is akin something an otherwise very different kind of writer is doing. It seem like such a project (really too strong a word) could make visible affinities while not glossing over or excluding difference. Well, I have more thoughts on what this might mean...but maybe I'll float them later.

SS