Jackson MacLow
Thing of Beauty 2008
new and selected works
edited by Anne Tardos
$34.95
University of California Press
Berkeley Los Angelos London
ISBN 978-0-520-24936-3
“the kinds of pleasure that poems may bring about are as various as the kinds of pleasure that poets may take in making them. (this is of course true also of the kinds of pain they may cause.) the reason why some poets delight in making poems in other ways - otherwise - than others do could be that they feel a need for other pleasures than those they’ve experienced from poems hitherto.”
Jackson MacLow
shortly before Jackson Mac Low died, (2004) I attended a reading by him and Anne Tardos, his long time companion. i was new to the experimental world, poetry, even though experimentation had become a way of life for me in my painting and writing, I was unaware of the community of experimental writers. John Dooley created a venue for famous artists, such as Tardos and Mac Low to present their work in this bastion of intellectuality, Cambridge Massachusetts. thank God for people like Dooley whose pleasure extends to a community of writers eager to be presented with the unusual, the extraordinary. i became part of that audience, hearing Mac Low and Tardos click together, dik dik dat from what initially seemed shocking to me, their click began to click. Mac Low’s facial expressions held distain for his audience and love for our being there. he seemed tired and feeble, feeble in the sense of what age does to the body and mind of a man who thinks and is incapable of not being able to think. this frustration was apparent in his expressions. MacLow grumped his way through the reading. Tardos was a patient assistant to his genius. she read her own work with the mastery of one who is comfortable with her creative work. Tardos and Mac Low wiggled a reality in me in the same way the concepts of Joseph Bueys ’s drawings and paintings did the day (year) (1978 or 1980) I saw Bueys' paintings in one of Harvard’s museums. I almost fell to my knees. Bueys’s marks felt akin to a revelatory experience, an enlightenment. I never viewed art the same way again. his work taught me, another way to use creative materials, ways that speak in tongues. a gibberish way of speaking that someone else can interpret. talk about revelations. what joy to be able to speak another language and to be understood...it felt like I was in the middle of a garden which provided all I would ever need to survive, leaves to cover my body, fruits, vegetables, and meat to eat
yesterday, during one of my visits, Harvard Fog museum, I saw my first painting done by Agnes Martin. white paint and graphite strips on a large square canvas. it was done during her later period. “oh my God. Agnes Martin. oh my God., this is so awesome.” i repeated this mantra to the person with me, who did not share my enthusiasm. she asked me what I saw in the painting, she felt was so stark and simple in its presentation. my reply, “peace, I see peace.” what sheer joy, my being able to view Martin's work. I have admired her sheer tenacious tribute, the beauty of simplicity and i have only been able to see her works in books, the grave yards of living ideas.
this afternoon people all over this country will be glued to television screens, the Boston Patriots will be kicking a leather ball around a huge green yard, trying to get that ball into a designated zone. when the ball (carried by a football player) reaches the goal, a score, a number, is given to the team who gets the score (something to that effect. i'm not a fan). touch-downs bring cheers, dancing, slaps on the ass of the some of the players, and conversations between strangers abound. the game of life and how to play it. artists are out to score and why not. MacLow makes a touch down.
‘thing of beauty’ a book compiled and edited by Anne Tardos of Jackson MacLow’s work from 1937 to September 22, 2004, published in 2008, sits by itself in the poetry section of the bookstore I frequent. I buy it. Mac Low touches me again, with an understanding, not just his creative works, also, his love for Tardos and Tardos’s love for MacLow speaks loudly; just the thought of her compiling all his work is a thing of beauty. all those persons who compile the work of someone who has created something they think we all would enjoy. just holding this book brings me a sense of belonging, a sense of something loving, just looking at the cover is a profound experience for me, an identification with the artist who is playing the same game as me. a player on the same team. his touch - down. her score board tells me we are winning at our own game.
this is not a review of Jackson MacLow's selected works, this is a review of being presented with an opportunity to buy a book, I’ve only just begun to read. please don’t think I’m educated to the writings of MacLow, his poetry, experimentations, his chance exploration. I am not. I am a recognizer of extraordinary differences, the pleasure of discovering a person or persons who have extraordinary gifts, the experimental gift, exploring thier gift, forging newness.
information is one of the words at play in reading this book, timing is another, timing presents metaphysical muses, timing and information presents, spiritual forces, chance presentations, the coming upon something, even an object which may help to sustain a person, sustenance in book terms, other than material terms. the reader determines what works, what accentuations, what accenting emphasis, what is needed for the continuation of pleasure. fortuitous maybe another word to describe coming upon this ’once upon a time’ book, the happy ending being the beginning read. walking into a bookstore to browse, I find the perfect book to encourage my own explorations; being able to identify with a playmate. infectious. revelation. I’ve denied my own emotional stance, for years I believed I must delete emotion from my creative endeavors. who told me that. why did I take it on. why do I need to think someone else has the way to be creative that (should) apply to me. why don’t I let myself be. there are always influences and I embrace those influences, reading certain poets, viewing certain artist’s work brings me pleasure. this book gave me the word, fabulous. fabulous, fabulous, fabulous sounds fabulous. an old word usually used in a fade favor time frame. fabulous: 1. like, told in, or based on fable. 2. incredible or marvelous. fable-us. MacLow fables us with his writing, written, handed in, down, hand written, hand filmed, hand counted. count me in on his goal, a 'thing of beauty.'
irene coronas
