Looking Back at ‘The End of the Twentieth Century’ (and a half) and at some poems for, at, and beyond the millennium

Abstract

This hybrid paper carries at its heart a long excerpt from my 1999 poetics-poem “The End of the Twentieth Century,” particularly the passages relating to my then discovery of the second volume of Poems for the Millennium: Post-War to Millennium, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Pierre Joris, which I introduce as a “prospectus for reading” for myself (and for my adoption of the book in my teaching), and as a “loose leaf” series of poetic strategies for my own subsequent writing, in short, poetics. The first part, “Academic Introduction: Networking,” provides a context for the poetics of the long project that “The End of the Twentieth Century Blues” comes from: Twentieth Century Blues. While reprising its own sense of itself as a “network,” I introduce contemporary concepts of networking, as derived from Caroline Levine’s book Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network. I also outline poetics as a speculative writerly discourse, with recourse to Jerome Rothenberg’s practice. While parts one and two were delivered at the Glasgow conference in celebration of Jerome Rothenberg, part three, “Personal Commentary,” is a new piece of writing, reflecting partly the enthusiastic experience of that celebration, remembering Jerome Rothenberg as an inspirational figure for so many, and coming to the realisation that Rothenberg was in his person and his works a species of “anthology.”