Dropped in the Dark Box

Poetry. Poetry makes things happen, makes us happy, makes us happy by making things happen. Concoct meanings as you wish, sort and sift them at your pleasure, discard them in the end and simply (which in context means complexly) enjoy the machinery of the poem at work. This is the what and the why of many a Bennett poem. It takes some effort to get to it, but it is always worth the work. Poems make things happen. Little things, yes, but worlds are made of little things, lives are made of little things. A poem should mean and be and do, simultaneously and sequentially. Open this book to page 12 and read 'found the fistula, ' which might be thought of as a kind of mini ars poetica... Read a poem once and you know that it exists. Read it twice and you might think you know some of what it means. Read it three times and you suspect it of nonexistence. The poem will not sit still for your inspection. It will not stand for scrutiny. While reading it the fourth time you suspect you have some sort of slithering, slippery, shape-shifting chimera before your eyes. It is made of signs and sings and sounds and sooouuunds, slimy shifting symbols and sticky surfaces... Poetry makes things happen, makes us happy, makes us happy by making things happen.--Jim Leftwic