John Logan: a Retrospective
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Faculty Publications, English and Comparative Literature English and Comparative Literature August 1981 John Logan: A Retrospective Alan Soldofsky San Jose State University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/eng_complit_pub Part of the Poetry Commons Recommended Citation Alan Soldofsky. "John Logan: A Retrospective" Poetry Flash (1981). This is brought to you for free and open access by the English and Comparative Literature at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications, English and Comparative Literature by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CAUF Free Number 101 August 1981 Subscriptions $7 1t 1:~ 1 1 :1 1 W~ I : l:::m:l: t;:l:mt11:lf:lllll 0 2007 1581018 6 Caltfonua Stale Library , John Logan and Family. JOHN LOGAN: A RETROSPECTIVE Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream: Selec· ted Poems, Ecco Press, New York, 1981 , $14.95. Strange 10 be al>le 10 ~ee through the steam The Bridge of Change: Poems 1974·1980, BOA (but sallsl ymg to me pornt of calm. lik e tne viSion o llhC PCIICCI new born) Editions, Brockport , N.Y., 198 1, $4.50. ,or rhe lust 11me With the publication of Only the Dreamer Can Change the the whole Dream and The Bridge of Change, we have once more in print a beautiful body of a loend substantial body of work by one of this country's most valuable (Poem Tears. Spray. and Stoom part r) poets. John Logan·s opus of ntne books thus far, including the In a recent conversation, Logan told me that when he started out Selected Poems, represents a formidable and sustatning accom in poetry his background was in b1ology and physics. not literature. plishment. Only the Dreamer Can Change the Dream pulls He did not become interested in writing until he translated R1lke tog_ether the_most significant poetry from Logan's previous in connection with work on a Ph D. tn Philosophy. which he d1d maJOr collections: Cycle for Mother Cabrini ('955). Ghosts of the not c_omplete. at Georgetown Untversity. Worktng on Ai lke changed Hea rt (1960). Spnng of the Thtef {1963). The Ztgzag Walk (1969). hts ltfe. Besrdes berng interested tn the sound of Ailke's poems and The Anonymous Lover (1973). The Bridge of Change contains tn German-their internal and external rhymtng and their metrics new poems and also the long poem. " Poem In Progress... -Logan loved the disturbing tmagery and the way Ailke " saved previously avatlable as a chapbook. h1s thunder for the end of the poem.'' Two poems included in those Among contemporary poets Logan's path has been singular. selected from Sprrng of the Thtef, " Song On the Dread of a Ch1ll His work, musically compelling as Yeats, Frost, or Thomas, has Spring" and " Lament m Spnng," Logan drrectly attributes to found its own lbrm in syllabic verse. Logan's ear is profound. Rilke's influence. He also published " Homage to Rilke... mostly He has been the contemporary to work most successfully m an assemblage of translations. in The Zigzag Wa lk. sound. At the height of his powers. his music is symphonic: Logan learned to write poetry using an iambic pentameter line la rgely because of translating Rilke; his first major poem. Peeong, stung Ol eared. hung " Cycle tor Mother Cabrlni," wa s revised from iambic pentameter over and lame. to a three-stress line before it was published in Poetry in 1953. through waves of Spray He continued to write in the three-stress tine through Ghosts of !lett/ somewhat the Heart. and did not work rn anythrng resembling free-verse pamcky, w e~r<J . about my sweat until the last poem of that book. " A Tnp to Four or Five Towns,.. mg body which he dedicated to James Wnght That poem. one of his most For wlfete do we and our vapots en t~ ? stgntlicant and also one of his oersonal favorites. marks the Where does the Oath oegon' beginning of his matu re work: continued page 2 ThiS b ellychlllmg. shoe soakm g . fac tory· d ug up h1ll smotheflng P1ttsourgh weather' I wa1 t f or a c ab 1n the s mart mahogJny Some Information lobby o f the semmary Bob Kaufman's The Ancient Rain: Poems 1956·1978. recently The marble Piet• ts flanked arou nd w i(IJ fa l( e /ern Sne chenshe s her t:Jead son published by New Directions. is being translated into Dutch stretc hed a long her w omb he trtple c rosse d by Simon Vinkenoog. and will be published in the Netherlands A s mall. sttppel ed pflest w1th an introduction b y Ira Cohen. Ron Sillima n's 3-page magazine. p ads up Whom d o you seek. m y son? To ttel's, (c/o Cen tral C1 ty Hospitality H ouse, 146 Leavenworth. Father l"ve come m out o f the ram I seek tel uge from the el emental tears. S.F .. CA 94102) has once again surfaced. Inquiries of all sorts lor my heavy. earthen bod y runs to gnef are encouraged, with future issues to appear " from time to time". and I am apt to d row n Th is issue focuses on Steve Benson 's work. m lhts s mall and underhanded ram t ha t dr op s 1/s dross so de licately A new series of hardbound poetry is being edited by Robert on me hturs of the lfo wers Peters. Six books a year will be published by Scarecrow Press, Though in " free - ~erse. " the poem is resoundingly musical. Having with the intention of creating an overview of traditional and studied piano and having always been interested in classical experimental contemporary poetry available to libraries, schools music, it was natural for Logan to become engaged in the and general bookstores who could subscribe to the series. To be music of his poems. Although he had read Frost and Yeats, he eligible, the poet must have published three or more books pre told me he did not feel particularly influenced by them. Rather, viously. To suggest your work o r someone else's, write to Robert he discovered his musical effects pretty much on his own. Peters at P.O. Box 656, Metuchen. NJ 08840. Besides the musical effects which decorate the ends of the A new poetry reading series will beg in at the Noe Valley lines. logan's earlier poems are striking for their mythic narratives. Ministry on Sunday evenings in October. Poets who perform with Often he found himself writing about artists who were having dancers. musicians or mimes are encourged to contact Diane trouble with their mothers. In " On the Death of the Poet's Frank. c/o Noe Valley Poetry , 1021 Sanchez St., San Francisco, Mother Thirty-three Years Later," included in Ghosts of the CA 94114, to arrange a possible reading. Include poems, SASE, Heart, for the first time he faces his own adult experience in and your phone number. An anthology of poems read at the a poem: " My mother died because I I lived or so / I always chose Sacred Grounds open mike from 1978 to now is being assembled to believe." Thi s theme will haunt his later work. for a fall '8 1 publication date. Send no more than five poems In Spring of the Thief, Logan abandoned the accentual verse to Dav"1d Frankel. 359 · 30th St.. San Franc'lsco, CA 94131, it he had been using, derived from Gerard Manly Hopkins, and you've been one of the readers. instead began to work with syllables, trying to break away from AGADA, a new Jewish literary journal, is beginning triannual iambic rhythms, he invented a thirteen syllable line for " Mono publication. and is seeking subscriptions ($10 per year, sample logues for the Son of Saul" and " To a Young Poet Who Fled," issue $4). and submissions. Meiseh, other fiction, poetry, Torah, and a nine syllable line for " On Reading Camus in Early March ... translations. essays and graphics are welcome. Write AGADA, Syllables have become lor him a minimum d iscipline which 2020 Essex St., Berkeley, CA 94703. enables him to discover where the line may go and gives hi m a Corrections: The " Poets for Gay Freedom" review in the July principle of revision: the eight and thirteen syllable lines he Flash inadvert ently described the Aaron Shurin, Diane Di Prima uses in The Bridge of Change originated in these earlier poems. reading as the main Gay Freedom Week reading. Mainstream It was in the early sixties that Logan met the photographer, Exiles also sponsored four excellent readings in connection with Aaron Siskin, with whom he started Choice magaz ine, which Gay Freedom Week, which we in no way intended to sl ight. Also, was responsible for introducting into print the work of a great Oboe magazine (Wilderness Press, 495 Ellis St., Suite 1156, number of younger poets; Marvi n Bell, Roger Alpon, Dennis San Francisco, C A 94102) has not fo lded as the Flash reported. Schmitz, Bill Knott, Naomi Lazzard , and Jon Anderson among In fact. grants, and "an unusual infusion of subscriptions" has, them. The magazine was also one of the first to introduce the by popular demand, forced the publication o f Oboe #5, due idea of combining poetry and photography. Loga n's interest in late this year. photography yielded the many intensely visualized poems based Finally. for you summer travelers; a destination.