Preface - Electronic Poetry Center

From: Hank Lazer
Subject: Re: teaching
There have been, of late, several comments related to issues of teaching poetry.
As I prepare for a course this Fall in Modern American Poetry, I’ve found
myself thinking over a few similar issues.
First, I agree with those who have argued for reading aloud in class. Of course.
Over the years, I have collected a good many audio and video tapes. I read
aloud in class; the students read aloud in class (and, presumably, at home). And
I am able to present in class a reading of poems by the poet. (And, at times,
point out that the poet has often read a poem aloud, over time, in different
ways.)
Second issue is, for me, a practical one. Any recommendations for how to
present Zukofsky? I have about two weeks set aside, and cost of books is an
issue. If you were to pick a few things by Z to teach (to graduate students–most
in the MFA program, most of whom will have read nothing by Z, virtually
nothing by Stein or Williams, probably familiar with Eliot, passing
acquaintance maybe with Pound) what would you teach?
Third is a perhaps apocryphal story about Robert Duncan. I heard the story
nearly 25 years ago, and it concerned the way Duncan allegedly began a poetry
(poetry writing?) class at UC Santa Cruz. He said that there would be two basic
rules in the course: 1) they would not be discussing students’ poetry in class; 2)
he would do almost all of the talking. When I frist heard the story, I though,
what an arrogant asshole. I had begun to take a few writing workshops, and
thought ill of Duncan’s anti-democratic rules. Over the years, I can see what he
may have been doing. The workshop methodology has indeed proven to be
trivial and narrow–a kind of auto repair approach to tinkering with the
unambitious and tidy poem. And the students will inevitably form their most
important associations (for discussing poems too) outside of class among
themselves. Duncan could certainly meet individually with students to talk over
their poems. And needless to say, he did have a lot to say.
Fourth has to do with the issue that Rod Smith raised about the importance of
teaching via not-knowing. I offer the following excerpt from Bob Perelman’s
fine book The Trouble with Genius (p. 165):