Friends Of Lorine Niedecker Issue #7 Winter 2008

Solitary PloverLORINE’S WINDOWafter visiting Lorine Niedecker‘s shack atBlack Hawk IslandTo catch a glimpse, to seeher work,To feel the spark at theheel of this buffalo writer.Word alchemy. Did she usetwelve steps to distill?Essence is there always.She condensed andgave us more.Nancy Rafal- originally published in the Wisconsin Poet’sCalendar 2002, copyright 2001Mystery PoemIn the Summer 2007 issue of Solitary Ploverwe published a poem titled Lunar Eclipse,March 3, 2007. I was not able to match thispoem with a poet but since then have learnedthat it was written by Donna Pecore of Chicago.ALWinter 2008ESSAYSWriting Historical MotionLorine Niedecker’s poems “Lake Superior”and “Paean to Place” are poems of history –natural, personal, and some portion of humanity’s. They operate on different scales, comprised of vastly different materials. These differences provide the striking visual contrastbetween the poems, which otherwise havequite similar forms and styles (both recognizably those of Niedecker), distorting throughtheir malleability or rigidity that which appearson the page.Donald Davie writes in his essay “Lyric Minimum and Epic Scope” that “Lake Superior” iscomprised of “twelve short or very short passages of verse” (144). Judging by the largerspatial breaks, “Paean to Place” has the samenumber, though it seems to be a disservice toboth poems to consider each as a disconnectedor even loosely connected collection of passages. Examining the poems as they appear inNiedecker’s The Granite Pail, where thebreaks are merely blank space, rather thanDavie’s inclusion of the more divisive visualbreak of the ellipsis of star characters, reveals amore organic, self-referential element to thesepauses. The enjambed spaces in “Lake Superior,” connecting across the leaps of time between the historical events of the narrative,mimics the layers of rock below the surface –the lines of cleavage and fracture, yet still unified. This is the omnipresent mineral, the separation which still allows for cohesiveness.In the same way, “Paean to Place” states thecontained kinetics of the poem in its first line:“And the place was water.” The poem, speaking of the marshes, mimics the movement ofthe waters against the bank – each “passage” isthe movement forward or backward, and thepause at the nadir or zenith before the directionchanges. The topics might seem to change, yetthey are part of the greater flow of the poem,dragging away the materials obscuring the pastof her family, and moving forward to depositnew materials from her own experiences in thePage 10

Solitary Ploverpresent. Niedecker is giving and taking in hernarrative of the waters in the same manner thatthose waters provided for and destroyed segments of her life.Davie focuses on the historical aspects of“Lake Superior,” and later berates himself forperhaps devoting too much of his attention tothose elements. In focusing on the individualfacts, separating elements too much from thewhole, he does not devote much of the attention of the essay to the flow (present in both thepoem he looks at and the other) – the flow ofrock, water, and blood. As Niedecker crafts thisflow, it does not demand the reader’s constantattention, though it does insinuate itself in thesubconscious during reading. It provides a perpetual added depth to elements which might attimes seem too distant, personal, or foreign to areader without Niedecker’s knowledge of encyclopedic historical facts or firsthand experiences (as she shows in speaking of the gopherat Sand Lake, these moments are at times distant or seemingly lost even to her). The combination of enjambment and organic breaks andpauses connect the poems, the readers andpoet, the present and past, with the rocks thatwere once mud that was once people that wereonce rocks.Davie, Donald. “Lyric Minimum & EpicScope: Lorine Niedecker.” PN Review 8, no. 5(1981): 31-33.Kerry DelaneyFog-Thick MorningDo we, as writers, use events to mirror thingsthat have deeper significance for us?A little over 20 minutes down the road fromwhere I live—and 60 years ago—there was awoman who scrubbed floors in the Fort Atkinson hospital and spent much of her life beside aflooding river in a barren cottage without electricity or running water. Unknown to those whoWinter 2008came in contact with her, she also wrote relentless poetry which today is included in the Norton Anthology alongside such literary giants asEmily Dickinson and William Carlos Williams.For example:Fog-thick morning—I see onlywhere I now walk. I carrymy claritywith me.Now there are various small collections of herpoems and two books of correspondence shehad over a 20-year period of time, but nothingthat correlates her life with her work. I figurethis is something I can handle and since, in2003, we are coming up on the 100th anniversary of her birth, there may be a marketing opportunity for a short, inexpensive paperbackthat I publish myself. I call the book America'sGreatest Unknown Poet.It seems Lorine set her sights beyond Blackhawk Island and her connection to that otherworld was Louis Zukofsky—a young NewYork intellectual making waves in the poetrycommunity.Here are the words of Zukofsky’s friend, JerryReisman, who came to know Lorine well:“In the early 1930s I lived in the SouthBronx with my parents and was a physics major at CCNY. Louis Zukofsky and I were closefriends. Frequently, on weekends, I rode thesubway to his Manhattan apartment and did myhomework there.“I had read most, if not all, of his letters toand from Lorine Niedecker. Neither Louis nor Ihad ever met her and we both looked forwardto her impending visit. I believe Louis expectedher to stay, at most, two weeks. The year was1933.“When Lorine arrived, she and Louis exchanged shy greetings and Louis introducedher to me. Of course she already knew aboutme from Louis’s letters. Later, when she beganto unpack her things and Louis saw what shehad brought—an ironing board and an iron, forexample—he concluded that she was preparedPage 11

Solitary Ploverto stay a long time. He looked a bit worried. Hehad not planned to have a long-term live-inrelationship with Lorine.”I can't recall any experiences of women stalking me, though there was a time in the Armywhen my ex-wife and I were visited by Phyllis,an attractive school-friend of hers who came tostay in our very small studio apartment in theGerman village where we lived. I rememberthinking that this would be interesting, especially when she feigned interest in my poetry.But Phyllis quickly fell for a baby-faced punkmusician and moved out ten days after her arrival.Well Lorine and Zukofsky hit it off OK. In factshe became pregnant. Jerry Reisman continues:“Lorine wanted to keep the child, but Louisinsisted that she terminate the pregnancy.Lorine promised to have the child in Wisconsin, raise it on Blackhawk Island and neverbother Louis for support money or anythingelse. Louis was adamant. Nothing remained butto find a reliable abortionist and the money topay for the operation.“One of my cousins recommended a femaledoctor. Her fee was 150—a lot of money inthose days. Lorine obtained the money fromher father.“After the operation, the doctor revealedthat her patient had been carrying twins. Lorineruefully named them ‘Lost’ and ‘Found.’Physically, she recovered quickly; but I thinkshe must have ached for her twins all the yearsof her life."In her poem about Mary Shelly, Lorine writes:Who was Mary Shelley?What was her namebefore she married?Who was Mary Shelley?She read Greek, ItalianShe bore a childWho diedand yet another childwho died.Winter 2008Lorine went back to Wisconsin. And Zukofsky? He eventually got married and had a son,Paul, by his new wife. Lorine continued to exchange letters with him over the next ten years,often more than one a week—a correspondencethat is for each of them, their greatest output.During the period of his son's childhood, Zukofsky’s letters are full of accounts of Paul’santics. Lorine used these anecdotes to writepoems about Paul, which also suggest an embedded homage to Zukofsky.FOR PAULPaulnow six years old:this book of birds I lovedI give to you.I thought now maybe Paulgrowing taller than cattailsaround Duck Pondbetween the river and the Soundwill keep this book intact,fly back to it each summermaybe PaulNiedecker’s For Paul poems identify a‘family’ composed of the Zukofskys and herself. At first, Celia and Louis welcomed herattachment to Paul, and the child apparentlyenjoyed her attentions too. HoweverNiedecker’s choice of Paul as a focus for herpoems went awry. The poems pressed into Zukofsky's privacy; perhaps they began to seemtoo public and intrusive and Zukofsky feltcompelled to retreat a bit. In 1961, when two ofthe poems were to be published in My FriendTree, he asked that she remove the overt biographical content from the titles and dedications.Ah ha! I think as I discover the story behindLorine's nurturing poems about Paul. What ifour writing is more than a means for us to delude ourselves by transforming one thing intosomething else? In fact, what if it is the opposite. What if writing allows us to confront indirectly what we cannot head on? I recall a mystery novel I wrote whose hero is my rather non-Page 12

Solitary Plovercommunicative son. Though it is fictional Ihave to flesh out many of the emotions frommy own experiences and in some strange way,I came to know myself through this use of himbetter than through poetry which I've alwaysconsidered more personal and revealing thanfiction.The written, edited and printed book, America'sGreatest Unknown Poet, sells moderately wellat the Niedecker Centennial, at which I am alsoasked to speak. Most of the presenters havePhDs and are associated with university literature programs. I can't help but think that myformer neighbor would be somewhat bored bywhat they have to say.And my novel? It's never published, but lookingback at it now the remarkable thing is that at itsconclusion the young narrator goes to live atthe house where his father recently died. Digging through that man's possessions the soncomes to appreciate his dad. The truth I amindirectly confronting is that this is what I wantmy son, Karl, to feel for me.Six months after the Centennial I am able toget a national distributor for the Niedeckerbook. But it's not surprising the book isn'tmore successful. Her work isn't uplifting in thesame way that a popular song or a decorativepainting might be. These are not poems to berecited at graduations or anniversaries. That’sbecause there are troublesome things deeplyingrained in them; though even here she’s selective. She writes about her working-classhusband, but very little about her philanderingfather who “kept” another family (a mistressand her daughter—he bought the husband acquiescence with gifts of land). She writes critically of her deaf long-suffering mother, but notabout Louis Zukofsky and Cid Corman whosefriendships she courts over her lifetime. Shewrites about the child, Paul—Zukofsky’s son—but (with the one exception I've alreadyquoted) not about the aborted twins she mighthave had by him. Or is this true?It seems to me that someone who lives a life ofmetaphors can easily substitute one person forWinter 2008another when, for her own mental health, sheneeds the kind of distancing art provides. Herfather and husband meld together, as do Lorineand her mother and the live child and deadtwins. Of course it’s more complicated thanthat. But part of the fun of literature (despitedisdain for it from the academic community) isthis gossipy, quasi-psychoanalytic speculation.Niedecker’s cryptic poetry is full of tantalizingclues and references that encourage it.WildernessYou are the manYou are my other countryand I find it hard goingYou are the prickly pearYou are the sudden violent stormthe torrent to raise the riverto float the wounded doeWhat is clear is that she not only chooses subjects that are difficult, but ones that have multiple layers of meaning and in which there is akind of resolution (if from nothing else, fromthe beauty of their perfectly matched contentand form).Let me generalize and identify steps of thisprocess. These apply to prose and film as wellas to poetry. To me, what's most intriguing isthat this is a vertical approach (as opposed tothe horizontal or linear way we usually thinkassociate with developing a piece of writing).Here are the eight stages as I see them:Eight Stages of Creative Processing1. EXPOSURE In the first stage we absorbthe world and its experiences through oursenses and intuition.2. REACTION In the second our unconsciousdreams and fantasies put these in a form wecan handle.3. INVESTMENT As we take ownership ofthe subject our empathy grows for the characters or people who are part of the story and wePage 13

Solitary PloverWinter 2008further invest our feelings in their conflict.4. REALIZATION Next we make this tangible as a short story, poem, article, play or book,giving it dramatic structure that heightens thoseemotions.5. VERIFICATION Fifth, we test its effectiveness on others through classes, readings,and critique groups—clarifying, refocusing,reinterpreting.6. REVISION In the sixth stage we incorporate that feedback into our project often mirroring a larger theme beyond our original scope.7. PUBLICATION We find an audiencethrough being published or performing thepiece.8. EXPANSION Encouraged by success wereturn to the initial stages and do more of thesame at an even deeper level.The purpose of this process is not only to create a final product but to encourage us to digdeeper and deeper. For example, LorineNiedecker is infatuated by Louis Zukofsky forsome reason. She fantasizes about a life withhim and makes that dream a reality (Stages #2& #3). Or tries to. He doesn't want her pregnancy so she (Stage #4) through poetry createsan alternative—projecting her feelings ontoPaul. But this is not acceptable (Stage #5) soshe eventually turns to another subject—theman who becomes her husband late in life andis less qualified to object to her work. Albert O.Millen, a hard drinker, then in his 59th year,was divorced after the youngest of their fourchildren, Gael, left for college. He'd lost hisright hand in a printing press accident in Oshkosh in his 20s, and now he was a maintenancepainter nearing retirement. Millen bought agrey cottage a few lots east of Niedecker’scabin as a place to live and fish (Lorine's fatherhad been a carp seiner).Something in the waterlike a flowerwill devourwaterflowerIt may be dangerous to do this with someoneelse's work, but as writers it is key to our uncovering greater depths in our own. Not thatthis is a conscious process. As the short storywriter Andre Dubus says: "I try never to thinkabout where a story will go. This is as hard aswriting, maybe harder because I want to knowwhat the story will do and how it will end andwhether or not I can write it. But I must notknow or I will kill the story by controlling it. Iwork to surrender. When we speak from theheart, with no plan, no point to make, we discover truths we did not know that we knew."In other words we become active, rather thanpassive, readers of our own work. With a littlepractice anyone can become a good writer, butgreat writers—such as Lorine Niedecker—arethose who are great readers of what they write.This is an excerpt from a two-part presentationon the creative process by poet John Lehmanappearing in Issues #39 and #40 of Rosebudmagazine. John's book on Lorine Niedecker,America's Greatest Unknown Poet, is availableat bookstores and from amazon.com and CustomerDirectBooks.com.John LehmanWe, reading her poetry, might very well bedriven back to Stage #1. Was she trying to regain her father through Zukofsky? Is she, herself, the child she wants to save from abortion?Page 14

Solitary PloverBesides the many helpers and contributorsnamed within, this issue of the SolitaryPlover is brought to you by:Amy Lutzke,Dwight Foster Public Library andAnn EngelmanContact us at:Friends of Lorine Niedecker102 E. Milwaukee AvenueFort Atkinson, WI 53538(920) cker.orgWinter 2008Are you interested in volunteering withthe Friends of Lorine Niedecker? Weneed:Newsletter editorDatabase developerArchivistsResearch assistantsHelp us save money. If you are receivingthe print edition of the Solitary Plover andwould be able receive it by email, pleasecontact us. The email version is availablein PDF format and can be printed fromyour computer.BECOME A MEMBER!You can now support the work of the Friends of Lorine Niedecker by becoming a member. Memberships will help us host and update the Web site (the least expensive way we have found to share ourwealth of information), mail materials to those who don't have access to the Web and support researchand archive initiatives. Your contribution is tax-deductible and membership will cover the calendar yearof 2008.You can choose any level of Friends support (please circle one): 100 25Best Friend 50Precious FriendValued Friend 10Loyal FriendName:Address:Email:Make checks payable toFriends of Lorine Niedecker and mail to:Friends of Lorine Niedecker102 E. Milwaukee AvenueFort Atkinson, WI 53538Page 15

Friends of Lorine Niedecker102 E. Milwaukee AveFort Atkinson, WI 53538

Dec 29, 2007 · watercolor, inscribed, "Happy Birthday Julie, Love Lorine and Dad.” A similar version of this painting appears on the dust jacket of “Between Your House and Mine”: The Letters of Lorine Niedecker to Cid Corman, 1960 to 1970. . postcard announcing a sale. Curious, we went to their W