Ley Lines

by H. L. Hix (Editor)

Overview

Ley lines mark alignments of sacred sites such as ridgetops and ancient megaliths and create pathways between them. This book too marks alignments and creates pathways, but its sacred sites are not monuments, they’re artworks and poems. Its various forms of exchange between writers and artists offer unique access to contemporary art, poetry, and the creative process. 

In this unique anthology, working poets respond to questions about their recent books, painters and other artists offer statements about their work, and writers respond to artworks. These offerings and exchanges are juxtaposed so as to speak to one another in a capacious, resonant dialogue. The result is a broad-minded and inclusive poetics, a vision of creative work as a constituent of personal and civic life. 

Anyone who nurtures the creative impulse will enjoy Ley Lines and return to it again and again. Writing students, art students, and any reader engaged in artistic practice will find in Ley Lines not a how-to manual or step-by-step instruction but an inexhaustible vein of instructive reflection on imaginative work and the creative life. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771120326
Publisher:	Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Publication date:	10/23/2014
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

H. L. Hix is the author or editor of more than two dozen books. His most recent poetry collection is As Much As, If Not More Than. He lives with the poet Kate Northrop in an 1880s railroad house in the mountain west, and writes in a studio that once was a barn. His website is www.hlhix.com.

Table of Contents

About This Book 1

Rationale 1

Process 2

Participants 3

Elements and Pattern 4

Mystery 6

Ways of Dialogue 7

Capacious Enlivened Sense, Complex Daily Ardor 11

Between Paisley Rekdal Anne Lindberg Renée Ashley 13

Balance Zach Savich Vera Scekic Jericho Brown 18

Representation Johanna Skibsrud Ien Dobeelaar Michelle Boisseau 25

Most Importantly Have My Library 31

Archive Brian Teare Thomas Lyon Mills Evie Shockley 33

Scan Matthew Cooperman Bruce Checefsky Mary Quade 44

Things Lia Purpura Jason Dodge Philip Metres 49

Only Rearrange the Stones 55

Repetition Jon Woodward Doug Russell Andrew Joron 57

Pattern Scott King Gerky Trilling Nin Andrews 62

Spacing Gillian Conoley Phillip Michael Hook Alex Stein 68

Here Long Enough to Disappear 75

Complexity Lily Brown Sreshta Rit Premnath Debra Di Blasi 77

Complexity Veronica Golos Alisa Henriquez Caleb Klaces 82

Opposition Catherine Taylor Jane Lackey Carol Moldaw 89

Each Begun with a Stain 95

Voices Jacqueline Jones Lamon Murat Germen Nina Foxx 97

Particulate Laurie Saureork Young China Marks Denise Duhamel 102

Connections Valerie Martinez Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann Anis Shivani 107

Alive in a Strange Region 113

Response Kristi Maxwell Aviva Rahmani Rupert Loydell 115

Language Jill Magi Brian Dupont Rita Wong 121

Words Jena Osman Sarah Walko Bin Ramke 128

To Invent a Method 135

Beauty Kathleen Wakefield Anne Devaney Jonathan Weinert 137

Aura Sue Sinclair Anna Von Mertens Araa Michael Weaver 142

Space Dan Beachy-Quick Cassandra Hooper Alyson Hagy 148

This and Other Labor-Intensive Techniqes 155

Attention Julie Hanson Adriane Herman Laura Mullen 157

Confrontation Sandra Simonds Jim Sajovic Susan Aizenberg 166

The Real Lisa Fishman Leeah Joo Jennifer Atkinson 171

The World to Me 179

Event Paige Ackerson-Kiely Christine Drake Cynthia Atkins 181

Moments Warren Heiti Susan Moldenhauer Bruce Bond 187

Setting Juliana Spahr Leah Hardy Christine Gelineau 194

And Their Shadows at the Same Time 201

Failure Kirsten Kaschock Daniel Dove Ann McCutchan 203

Uncertain Barbara Maloutas Christopher Leitch Supriya Bhatnagar 209

Disappearance Jared Carter Shelby Shadwell Alison Calder 217

Works about Which Interview Questions Are Posed 225

Artworks Reproduced 227

Acknowledgments 229

About the Curator 231

About the Contributors 233

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“In Ley Lines, H. L. Hix assembles an array of contemporary poets and visual artists into a single conversation that is at once deeply philosophical, literary, and often times politically subversive. From dialogues on poetics to meditations on how one continues to create in a country (world) of non-stop war, these elegantly curated triads reverberate with collective insights. Ultimately, this compilation reminds readers how closely the act of creating art—written and visual—is linked to the art of listening.”

“H. L. Hix’s generative, generous anthology renews the poetics of listening. The dialogues between poets and artists seem to ask, in the words of Brian Teare, what kind of language ‘offers clarity sufficient to pain’? One of the most fascinating questions Hix returns to, with a refreshing and buoyant inter-criticality, is whether language adapts consciousness or perception to it or vice versa. ‘Capacious’ is a word he is fond of, and his wide arc of collaborative inquiry into eternity, war, responsiveness and responsibility delivers an expansive one-pointedness. Hix is an able, engaging curator whose book takes time and enriches it.”

Editorial Reviews

H. L. Hix’s generative, generous anthology renews the poetics of listening. The dialogues between poets and artists seem to ask, in the words of Brian Teare, what kind of language ‘offers clarity sufficient to pain’? One of the most fascinating questions Hix returns to, with a refreshing and buoyant inter-criticality, is whether language adapts consciousness or perception to it or vice versa. ‘Capacious’ is a word he is fond of, and his wide arc of collaborative inquiry into eternity, war, responsiveness and responsibility delivers an expansive one-pointedness. Hix is an able, engaging curator whose book takes time and enriches it.

Cherry Smyth

In Ley Lines, H. L. Hix assembles an array of contemporary poets and visual artists into a single conversation that is at once deeply philosophical, literary, and often times politically subversive. From dialogues on poetics to meditations on how one continues to create in a country (world) of non-stop war, these elegantly curated triads reverberate with collective insights. Ultimately, this compilation reminds readers how closely the act of creating art—written and visual—is linked to the art of listening.

Glori Simmons