L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poets

• The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poets were a group of American post-modern poets emerging in the early 1970s. 

• They generally opposed: capitalist politics, academic institutions, large presses (favoring small presses), and the attempt to enforce any kind of "meaning" into poetry. 

• The name they give themselves represents their belief that "Language" is an English word, constructed from a set of English symbols: L, A, N, G, U, A, G, E. This word, made from symbols, does not have inherent meaning. Through their poetry, they often demonstrate this nature of the English language as a set of symbols, empty of inherent essence or meaning.

                                    Poet's philosophy; Zen philosophy 

• Language as a web of symbols; all life as interrelated 
• Meaning not derived from the source of letters, words; meaning not derived from selfhood, inherent existence
• Opposition to capitalist politics; favoring the "ruler who does not rule"
• Opposition to the teaching establishment; focus on the enlightenment of mind and soul rather than systems of education and "learned" knowledge

           Characteristics of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry

• 1. Narrative = no story or connecting tissue of viewpoint or argument: poems often incorporate random thoughts, observations and sometimes nonsense. 
  
  

  480 Chao-Chou:

  A monk was on his way to interview the Master, but he saw that the Master was sitting with his robe covering his head, so he went back. 

  The Master said, "you can't say I didn't answer you."

  
  
• 2. "Personal" expression = not just detached, but the poems accept Barthe's thesis that the author DOES NOT EXIST. 
  
  

  No-Self

  
  
• 3. Organization = poems focus on the line, the word, and the LETTER, even, but not the stanza or overall group of stanzas. Often the lines making up the poem are discontinuous or fragmentary. The poems reject any guiding sense of purpose.
  
  
  

  "Yet students today cling to their deluded views and hold on to their personal ideas, thinking that Buddha is this thing or that thing. If these things differ from what they imagine, they deny that this can be and wander lost, looking for something similar to what their deluded ideas are."

  -Dogen, p. 146
• 4. Control = poems do not attempt to have control of form, and rather employ open forms. 
  
  

  a monk asked, "What is Buddha?"

  The Master replied, "A dried shit stick."

  
  

  ~Wu-Men-Kuan

  
  

  (subject/ topic/ form does not have to be any one thing, and in fact can be quite common, easy, ugly, to a scholarly critic's eye)

  
  
• 5. Critique of capitalist politics. 
  
  

  Zen concept of the ruler who does not rule.

Information on LANGUAGE poets