Language as visible vapor

skywriting through Lyn Hejinian's happily

Jim Keller

pp. 224-233

in: Joan Retallack, Juliana Spahr (eds), Poetry & pedagogy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006

Abstract

Shedding some light on Lyn Hejinian's description of language as 'strange matter," Meg Simpson introduces her Poetic Epistemologies with the claim that "what makes [Hejinian's] poetry so vital is that, by foregrounding the processes of language … [she] explores the relations among knowledge, language, and gender, thus (re)uniting art with philosophy …."² This in some measure clarifies Hejinian's own playful-circular suggestion that poetry provides "the language of inquiry" into the self-conscious and yet self-effacing manner in which innovative language works. Experiencing poetry in the classroom, however, is another matter. To take Simpson's epis-temic stance toward, or to find such a stance within, Hejinian's writing seems somehow still at odds with many of the impulses behind her poetry and much of contemporary "challenging" poetry more generally.

Cited authors

Hejinian Lyn