Colorado College Bulletin

The Reluctant Revolutionary

By CYNTHIA HAVEN

Who speaks of the great American poetry revival? Not Colorado College English Professor David Mason '78, author of two award-winning volumes of poetry.

He once took a large cardboard box of contemporary poetry volumes to a large used bookstore in Colorado Springs that has a wonderful selection of poetry.

"The guy wouldn't touch it. He said he couldn't sell them."

The skeptical glint is typical. Mason is a mild, pleasant man -- gentler and milder than one might expect from the straightforward and sometimes curmudgeonly essays of his latest book, The Poetry of Life and the Life of Poetry (Story Line Press, $15.95). His handshake is firm, soft, warm, and he is hard of hearing -- one must speak up, and speak clearly. The critic/essayist counters Mason the poet -- reflective, sympathetic, often taking the guises of other people, as in The Country I Remember (1996); the long title poem describes the lives of his own Civil War-era ancestors in persuasive blank verse.

Today, "poets don't invent," he says, leveling another dart at contemporary poetry. The insightful critic has come to the fore again: He reminds that the word "poetry" comes from "poietes" or "maker" in Greek. "Robert Lowell asked at the end of his life, 'Why not say what happened?' I say, 'Why not invent?'"

His poetic invention has evoked some powerful praise: Joyce Carol Oates lauded Mason's "extraordinary warmth, vigor, imagination, and sympathy" and characterizations she calls "formidable and utterly convincing -- as if, by magic, the experiences are our own, seen through the prism of memory and poetry." Similarly, poet Anthony Hecht praised Mason's "ample and mature vision. His quiet but undeniable force is a welcome addition to the best that is now being written by American poets."

Mason the essayist is a different matter. Mason's uncommon opinions have made him a reluctant revolutionary: He recalls the ruckus raised by his 1996 anthology (with Mark Jarman), Rebel Angels: 25 Poets of the New Formalism, spotlighting the revival of rhyme, meter, and narrative among a new generation of poets. "Rebel Angels alone has made me any number of enemies. The preface offended a great many people," he says.

He continues to cause controversy. Take, for example, his incisive analysis of recent trends toward noisy poetry slams and showy poetry olympics, which he says indicate "a kind of psychoanalytic or psychological revolution": "It gives lots of people avenues for expression, a chance to get in on the act. That has its own attractiveness and social value -- but it does not have anything to do with the art."

What's missing today? "Passion is lacking in contemporary American poetry," he says. "I think it's because people, when they publish, are not in a place where they commit to powerful feelings," he continues. "I believe very, very strongly we need to write about what matters, and in a way that matters, and be more reluctant to publish insignificant work." Is this another poetic call to arms? Perhaps the poet is simply reinforcing the passion expressed in The Country I Remember: "...and I was moved by everything that moved."

SONG OF THE POWERS

Mine, said the stone,
mine is the hour.
I crush the scissors,
such is my power.
Stronger than wishes,
my power, alone.

Mine, said the paper,
mine are the words
that smother the stone
with imagined birds,
reams of them, flown
from the mind of the shaper.

Mine, said the scissors,
mine all the knives
gashing through paper's
ethereal lives;
nothing's so proper
as tattering wishes.

As stone crushes scissors,
as paper snuffs stone
and scissors cut paper,
all end alone.
So heap up your paper
and scissor your wishes
and uproot the stone
from the top of the hill.
They all end alone
as you will, you will.

Reprinted by permission of the author

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