'a common idiom … call it a place'. Issue 1 (10th May 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Jones, Tom
• Is Part Of: Journal of British and Irish innovative poetry. Volume 11:Issue 1(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-05-10
• Subjects: Thomas A. Clark -- language systems -- ecosystems -- eco-poetics -- minimalism in poetry; 821.005
• DOI: 10.16995/bip.733
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1758-972X

Abstract

Abstract : Building on recent studies of the relationship between visual poetries and eco-poetics, this essay argues that language conceived of as systematic is an important consideration in the work of Thomas A. Clark. Beginning with readings of some of his meta-poetical work from the early 1970s, the essay suggests that the overt interest in poetic language as a system analogous to an ecosystem continues into Clark's later writing, though in a less overt, more ephemeralized manner. The essay explores ways in which Clark conceives of poetry as anti-entropic activity in a language system.