Language Poetry

This weekend I had to read one of the most confusing books I have encountered: My Life, by Lyn Hejinian. Not only did I have to read it, I had to understand it well enough to present it to my class. Understanding it was impossible at first glance because Hejinian seems to repeat herself and made me go in circles. When I got really frustrated with the book, I turned to Google to figure out what was going on.

It turns out, Hejinian is part of a movement called “language poetry.” A big part of language poetry is that the author’s presence is removed from the text. This means that what we get out of the writing is almost entirely up to us. She wrote what she wanted to, but there is no deeper meaning that the whole audience is supposed to magically “get.” Instead, each audience member will get what they want out of the piece and relate it to their life as they see fit. How versatile!

It was difficult to read this book because I try to figure out the meaning of most of what I read. Once I was able to shake that feeling, the book became much more enjoyable. Instead of searching for meaning, I let the meaning come when I would read a certain sentence or paragraph that had relevance to my life.

Skip to about 1:45 to see what you get out of Hejinian's writing here.