I have spent a good portion of the day so far dipping into the tagged book. The standouts were Didion's "Goodbye To All That," Barthes' "Leaving the Movie Theater," & Lopate's "Against Joi de Vivre." Lopate references the Berryman poem,a favorite of mine, in his essay. The essay isn't a diatribe against joy of life, he takes issue with an attitude that is a prolonged unrealistic idea of happiness. A few points he calls it the "Zorba approach."
Centique I haven‘t read this poem before and I‘m now searching it out. Thanks for leading me to it! 4y
vivastory @Centique I love John Berryman. I've been reading more poetry lately. Kevin Young edited a wonderful selection of his work![[tagged book]](https://image.librarything.com/pics/litsy_webpics/icon_taggedBook@3x.png)
Selected Poems 4y
Selected PoemsCentique I just read a couple and the way he uses language, almost skipping past words or breaking bits off, is touching to me. I love it when a poet/artist breaks “rules” but somehow you can follow and it seems perfectly natural and right. 😍 4y
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Centique And I‘ve stacked that book thank you! And reserved Dream Songs from the library.... 4y
vivastory @Centique That's wonderfully stated. Berryman was a true modernist, but he's one who doesn't lose contact with the emotive context of his poems & they're not maddeningly opaque like some modernist poetry. He had a very iconic style. 4y
vivastory @Centique Can't wait to hear what you think! Robert Lowell always gets a lot of attention, but I always thought Berryman was a much more interesting poet 4y
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