Days of the dim: the postmodern poetics and hope of Anne Waldman

Abstract

Language defines the survival and persistence of the human species. Poetics has been one of the most revered forms of both oral and written languages. Over the ages, poetry in the English language has morphed and evolved into new shapes and forms. Most striking is the recent transformation from the high modernist ideals left over from the Victorian period into the new, variable, powerful style of postmodern poetics. One poet to command the dominion of the postmodern poetic style is the seductive and passionate Anne Waldman. She builds on all masters of language, particularly those closest to her, such as Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac. She inspires zeal among her mass audience, makes them thirst for more in both life and spirit, and she commands attention from those who fear her most.