Sunday, November 3, 2019

Was Edward Dorn the thinking man's Charles Bukowski?

Don't see it at all. Dorn wrote epic poems of place and history, aware of Whitman, Olson, Williams before him. He understood the mysteries of an existence that won't reveal what it with holds until such time you've stopped looking for it. Dorn understood that he must appreciate the journey more than the final arrival, as the destination was never what he thought it would be. And he could write. Bukowski, a theoretically likable drunk and furious scribbler , wrote the same three poems over and over again for decades . His use of line breaks showed the world that nearly anyone could write free verse, which is not the same thing as writing poetry. I only know Dorn through the research of Michael Davidson, Paul Dresman and Donald Wesling,but my encounters with the writing convinces me he and Bukowski couldn't be more unalike as writers.

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