Hayden Carruth: Selected Essays and Reviews by Hayden Carruth (review)

Bo o k Re v ie w s H ay d en C arru t h : Se le c t e d E ssay s an d R e v ie w s. By H ayden Carru th . Port Tow n sen d, W ash .: C op p er Can y on Press, 1996. 376 pages, $18.00. Review ed by Sh au n T. G riffin Virgin ia City, N evad a Th ere is m ore bedrock w isdom in H ayden Carru th ’s Selected Essay s an d Review s th an I h ave read in a good lon g tim e— n ot th e everyday, colloqu ial w isdom th at brings so m an y o f th e New En glan d dirt farm ers to life in h is poetry, but th e pen etratin g, ch an ce-takin g w isdom th at tran sform s criticism in to eloquen ce. 1h esitate to use th e word “criticism ” in th is con text because th ese review s an d essays do precisely w h at th ey sh ould for th e n eglected state o f m odem poetry: they dare th e reader to participate, to read th e books. W h at’s m ore, th ey in sist th at readers stretch th eir know ledge. 1, for on e, knew n oth in g o f som e o f Carru th ’s m ore esoteric referen ces but found th e com bin ed forces o f h is in tellect an d diction breath takin g. D on ’t get m e wrong; th ese essays an d review s are an yth in g but h igh m in ded. Yet, they reach far to ach ieve som e coh eren ce o f poetic th ough t, to synthesize abstraction an d ren der it in h um an term s for you an d m e, the readers. Carru th will n ever be popular w ith th e academ ics or th e politically correct in literature because h e insists on th e direct statem en t o f feelin g an d experien ce— n o m atter h ow visceral or difficult. 1 read th is book over a period o f m an y m on th s, savored it as on e m igh t drin k good red w ine. T h e m argin s o f my book are literally cluttered w ith n otes to myself. Som e exam ples: revisit Pope, Dryden , M cGrath , Lorde; very little replication o f ideas; clever en din g, puts it in perspective; a terri­ ble am bition to learn from ph ilosoph y to scien ce; an d so on . Lon g before poets con descen ded to write criticism , it was still con sidered an art form , an d th ough Carruth esch ew s m uch o f h is w ritin g durin g th is period as “jou r­ n alism ,” th is book is an yth in g but th e sim ple con veyan ce o f in form ation . It is n oth in g less th an fifty years o f a m an ’s life in literature. Because Carru th is an editor, reviewer, essayist, an d blues m an , th is collection is th e distilla­ tion of lan guage from on e o f our finest poets w ritin g today. Ph oto illustration s in book review section by Sab in e Barcatta, © 1998. H an d-draw n illustration by M elody Grau lich , © 1998. B O O K R EVIEW S 3 0 5 T h is b o o k is a c o m p ila t io n o f C a r r u t h ’s b e st w r itin g fr om tw o ear lier b o o k s, Su icid es an d Jaz z e rs an d W ork in g...