Grasping for Narrative:

- Can narrative still be found in the often fragmentary works of contemporary poets?
- Does poetry lend itself to a more surreal narrative? (but prose can achieve surreality as well...)
- Is contemporary poetry divorced from narrative?
- If we consider conceptual poetry as a integral aspect of contemporary poetry...is there a perception that conceptual poetry has abandoned narrative/ is there truth in that conceptual poetry avoids narrative?

- How is narrative used in Richard Siken’s Crush? Matthew Henriksen’s Ordinary Sun?
- Is the narrative in these two examples more intimate/personal by necessity?...or, in other words, is this the way narrative remains relevant in contemporary poetry (as opposed to say, other long poems that do not deal with personal journeys.)

Some thoughts on how narrative is used in Siken’s Crush.

Perhaps the one of the most fascinating aspects of Siken’s work is his use of narrative, and the way he intersperses his disjointed bargaining with events, real or imagined. “Seaside Improvisation” exemplifies this push-pull. Elements combine to create a cognizant atmosphere. Mundane objects exist: tomatoes, whitewashed walls. And then, “The seaside town. The electric fence” (8). There is something in this line that hints at some hidden story, instantly conjuring images of shores and danger. Narrative elements also occur in “Litany in Which Certain Things Are Crossed Out.” These are fairy-tale archetypes utilized to tell a story: “the hero shifts/from one foot to the other (11). “For a while I thought I was the dragon. I guess I can tell you that now. And, for a while, I thought I was/ the princess” (11).

Siken is telling us a story, allowing room for his asides and his non-linear ramblings and his dreams.

Possibly using:

- Margarete Rubik’s “In Deep Waters. Or: What’s the Difference between Drowning in Poetry and in Prose?” From Theory into Poetry: new approaches to the lyric. Sourced from Googlebooks.
- Tony Hoagland’s “Fear of Narrative and the Skittery Poem of Our Moment” posted here:http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journal/article.html?id=177773
- Brian McHale’s “Beginning to Think about Narrative in Poetry.”
- Richard Siken’s Crush.
- Matthew Henriksen’s Ordinary Sun.

nivedita