Poem Present: Ben Lerner Reading

Ben Lerner, poet, critic, and professor at Brooklyn College, reads from his work and discusses the craft of poetry as part of the University of Chicago's Poem Present Reading and Lecture series. He focuses on the alienation of modern life and the limitations of communication.
Lerner has written numerous volumes of poetry and the novel "Leaving the Atocha Station." He also edits poetry for "Critical Quarterly."
For more information, visit poempresent.uchicago.edu.
January 26, 2012
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[@ChurlsBeardSmug]

This last stage of my project involves translating Ben Lerner's eyebrows.

[@RedHerod]

They can't help it. There is a giant gash between the principal idea and the action. Beauty and passion is lost in that interval because we a generally limited by what we know (the limited) and even though we feel we can write anything (the infinite) we are still held to those explanations and words which are all limited in their own way.

[@wordsinausername]

42:01

[@thelivingmanpart2]

do you know what exactly he was saying in the beginning? what he saying that poets are like rejects, or cause their failure? i dont get it, if poets suffer that much, why would they do art?

[@kevinhernandezrosa1890]

3:07, 3:42

[@thelivingmanpart2]

are you saying poets just like to fantasize? lolz i don't get what exactly you're saying in the last part... i get that we're all limited, but idk...

[@thelivingmanpart2]

i think he's talking more about "the life of the mind"/Barton-Fink-suffer-for-yourart type-of-shit... like van Gohg. But more specifically he mentions exactly what failure the poet does himself @4:00

[@thelivingmanpart2]

this shit is way too intellectual for me...

[@davedagruber]

I don't believe a true poet ever apologizes for his/her work. I don't. If someone doesn't like it, they shouldn't read or listen to it. There is a place where words get unleashed. That place is poetry.

[@lindastevens2529]

Daveda Gruber