Poetry for colors and shipwrecks
New Writers Series showcases poets Rivera and Moxley
Benjamin Costanzi
Issue date: 3/24/08 Section: Style
Soderberg Auditorium was seated to capacity on Thursday afternoon for the first post-spring break edition of the New Writing Series. The audience was treated to readings from Mexican-born poet Elena Rivera and the University's own poet/English professor Jennifer Moxley.
Moxley has several published books of poems - "Often Capital" (Flood Editions), "The Sense Record" (Edge Books), "Imagination Verses" (Tender Buttons) a book of translation: "The Translation Begins" (Burning Deck) - and a few chap books. She read poetry selections to start the event off.
She began with "The Quest" in dedication to her students studying literature of the Holy Grail. "The Price of Silence," also noteworthy as it created a sleepy metaphor in conviction of indifference in society, quipping that "we oppress in a way we cannot pay for" and ending on the aphoristic couplet "it is all fake, why should we wake."
The emphasis on materialism pervaded further as Moxley read a prose selection from "There Are Things We Live Among," inspired by the George Oppen quote "There are things/ We live among and to see them / Is to know ourselves" that followed a Crusoe-esque character gorging himself on provisions from a shipwreck and alluding to the salvation of goods. This segued into a piece called "Clothes" that painted a picture of a grandmother confined to her death bed, saying goodbye to her wardrobe, which called into question our relationships to garments.
Elena Rivera, who has a voice so perfectly modulated for reading poetry that it defies description, could be characterized as a rhythmic poet. Recently a translator at the Sante Fe Art Institute, she is the author of four books of poetry. She quickly began a series of poems based on color field painting and the associated vibration of colors. From Gold's hint of material desire - "I could have chosen sex instead of money" - Orange expansiveness - "theater of the bright peel" - Silver narcissism - "a mirror where fantasy takes over" and White anxiety - "the distant share scars with the scared," to Red exuberance - "the rivers of our heart at their core are very simple," "pant a little" - it was an imagist treat.
Rivera turned to more somber subject matter with "Movement in the Upper Regions," which was prefaced with a Franz Kafka quote illuminating that "the poet is a seeker after happiness, and that is anything rather than comfortable." With that in mind, the poem was a brutal analysis of the "poverty of desire" which seems so often to be together, and "the vast sorrow between what is reported and what one sees."
The New Writing Series meets next on March 26 in the Hill Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. for a reading from Thomas Sayers Ellis. Seating will be limited, and early attendance is recommended. For more information on Jennifer Moxley and a detailed list of her works, visit epc.buffalo.edu/authors/moxley. For more information on Elena Rivera and her works, visit elenarivera.net. For more information on the New Writing Series, visit nwsnews.wordpress.com.
Editors' note: The printed edition of this article incorrectly stated that Elena Rivera is a current translator and fellow of the Santa Fe Art Institute. The Maine Campus apologizes for the error.
Moxley has several published books of poems - "Often Capital" (Flood Editions), "The Sense Record" (Edge Books), "Imagination Verses" (Tender Buttons) a book of translation: "The Translation Begins" (Burning Deck) - and a few chap books. She read poetry selections to start the event off.
She began with "The Quest" in dedication to her students studying literature of the Holy Grail. "The Price of Silence," also noteworthy as it created a sleepy metaphor in conviction of indifference in society, quipping that "we oppress in a way we cannot pay for" and ending on the aphoristic couplet "it is all fake, why should we wake."
The emphasis on materialism pervaded further as Moxley read a prose selection from "There Are Things We Live Among," inspired by the George Oppen quote "There are things/ We live among and to see them / Is to know ourselves" that followed a Crusoe-esque character gorging himself on provisions from a shipwreck and alluding to the salvation of goods. This segued into a piece called "Clothes" that painted a picture of a grandmother confined to her death bed, saying goodbye to her wardrobe, which called into question our relationships to garments.
Elena Rivera, who has a voice so perfectly modulated for reading poetry that it defies description, could be characterized as a rhythmic poet. Recently a translator at the Sante Fe Art Institute, she is the author of four books of poetry. She quickly began a series of poems based on color field painting and the associated vibration of colors. From Gold's hint of material desire - "I could have chosen sex instead of money" - Orange expansiveness - "theater of the bright peel" - Silver narcissism - "a mirror where fantasy takes over" and White anxiety - "the distant share scars with the scared," to Red exuberance - "the rivers of our heart at their core are very simple," "pant a little" - it was an imagist treat.
Rivera turned to more somber subject matter with "Movement in the Upper Regions," which was prefaced with a Franz Kafka quote illuminating that "the poet is a seeker after happiness, and that is anything rather than comfortable." With that in mind, the poem was a brutal analysis of the "poverty of desire" which seems so often to be together, and "the vast sorrow between what is reported and what one sees."
The New Writing Series meets next on March 26 in the Hill Auditorium at 4:30 p.m. for a reading from Thomas Sayers Ellis. Seating will be limited, and early attendance is recommended. For more information on Jennifer Moxley and a detailed list of her works, visit epc.buffalo.edu/authors/moxley. For more information on Elena Rivera and her works, visit elenarivera.net. For more information on the New Writing Series, visit nwsnews.wordpress.com.
Editors' note: The printed edition of this article incorrectly stated that Elena Rivera is a current translator and fellow of the Santa Fe Art Institute. The Maine Campus apologizes for the error.
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