Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Controlling Interests
    Controlling Interests
    Controlling Interests
    Ebook85 pages1 hour

    Controlling Interests

    By Charles Bernstein

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Poetry. "In the poems of CONTROLLING INTERESTS Bernstein continually reveals his desire for the concomitance of the individual and the world, of all language and experience . This book is one of the most original and imaginative in American lyric verse"—Douglas Messerli. "Bernstein presents the reader with a world in which the articulation of an individual language is all but prevented by the official discourses that bombard the consciousness from all sides . He [is] on to something important"—Marjorie Perloff. "It is writing of absolute necessity, demanding not to be appreciated, but understood"—Ron Silliman. Charles Bernstein (born April 4, 1950) is an American poet, theorist, editor, and literary scholar. Bernstein holds the Donald T. Regan Chair in the Department of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is one of the most prominent members of the Language (or L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E) poets. In 2006 he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2005, Bernstein was awarded the Dean's Award for Innovation in Teaching at the University of Pennsylvania. He has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University, Brown University, and Princeton University. 
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRoof Books
    Release dateJun 2, 1905
    ISBN9780937804032
    Controlling Interests
    Author

    Charles Bernstein

    CHARLES BERNSTEIN is author of Pitch of Poetry and All the Whiskey in Heaven: Selected Poems. He is the Donald T. Regan professor of english and comparative literature at the University of Pennsylvania.

    Read more from Charles Bernstein

    Related to Controlling Interests

    Related ebooks

    Poetry For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Nature Isn’t Always Nice: On Megan Kaminski’s ‘Gentlewomen’

      Jun 25, 2021

      Kaminski’s poetic speakers take aim at patriarchal and humanistic hubris, the aggregating centuries during which men have bent both heaven and earth to their methods. The post Nature Isn’t Always Nice: On Megan Kaminski’s ‘Gentlewomen’ appeared first

      4 min read

    • Article

      Diaspora Sonnets

      Sep 1, 2022

      The old men drink their spritzers and gossipunder awnings. Red hued and blustery, like two roosters on the side of a road.Skyward they crane their necks and laugh, sometimes they wonder about kings and future kingsand how the muscles peer from their

      2 min read

    • Article

      Five Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      Five Poems
      5 min read

    • Article

      Something New

      Mar 1, 2018

      Something New
      4 min read

    • Article

      Seven Poems

      Sep 1, 2021

      The dancersIn a terribly brightLight blue gauzeRetained the mystery Skating on a lakeBlue and iceAn illusionary timeWhere poetry feels inevitable The terrific clownWho lies insideEvery blue dressDoes he see me Always a starAlways a rootHorrible auras

      2 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Joanna Klink

      Jul 8, 2020

      Two Poems by Joanna Klink
      2 min read

    • Article

      Devil Asks Why You Would Mouth The Word Pity

      Jul 1, 2022

      even in this abundance of dark? Even in this abundance of dark you have totake the stars on faith. Look: Under today’s dim sky there is a basket.In that basket there is a fish. Come night, you are the animal that will eat the best parts of it. And ye

      1 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      i look like someonehealing from an accidentbecause i am someonehealing from an accidentthe book of actsscales falling from saul’s eyesremembering my capacityfor stillnesshow long can i sitwithout looking awaythe fear of god escapingi desperately need

      3 min read

    • Article

      Silvia Guerra

      Jun 9, 2020

      The dry, black branches of winter seen in flight run singing. Come here to drink translucent drops on fresh leaves. Come over here, and try to light that wick. If you descend from the summit, humming, perhaps I can see you, perhaps at the river’s cur

      1 min read

    • Article

      To the Last Be Human

      Sep 9, 2022

      An excerpt from Robert Macfarlane's introduction to Jorie Graham's '[To] The Last [Be] Human.' The post To the Last Be Human appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      Three Poems

      Mar 1, 2022

      leisure for the youth / housing for everyone homeless / fresh fruit in the trees & kitchens of every American / a belly full & living / land back—truly & in its truest form / reparations for all the land & promise Black America has been stripped of s

      2 min read

    • Article

      A River Runs Through It

      Apr 14, 2020

      A River Runs Through It
      1 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      Two Poems
      2 min read

    • Article

      Some Notes On Poetry

      Feb 28, 2023

      Some Notes On Poetry
      12 min read

    • Article

      Curled Thyme

      Dec 6, 2019

      Curled Thyme
      4 min read

    • Article

      from BLACK PASTORAL

      Nov 1, 2023

      somewheres, some lifetimes ago I have run so far, so long.There is nowhere I haven’t beenBut here, in this field, a bodyLength from the ragged brinkThat gives way to forest.I collapsed here, the thin, hard slipOf me whittled at both ends.I want badly

      4 min read

    • Article

      Decision [de-, Caedere-, Latin]

      Mar 1, 2024

      Life is a series of decisions to move this poster to another room; that ass to some other chair.There isn’t really much to it, and then we’re done for. There was a time I wrote, seriously, about grief. I wonder whyI can’t do that anymore. Maybe it’s

      2 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems

      Jan 1, 2022

      Maybe every choice is in some way false,like whether to wonder or worry,or feel alive or alone in Clevelandor Memphis or any standard double queentrying to unwrap a tiny hotel soap.There’s always another one waitingin the dish like a stale communion

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Controlling Interests

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Controlling Interests - Charles Bernstein

      Interests

      MATTERS OF POLICY

      On a broad plain in a universe of

      anterooms, making signals in the dark, you

      fall down on your waistband &, carrying your

      own plate, a last serving, set out for

      another glimpse of a gaze. In a room

      full of kids splintering like gas jets against

      shadows of tropical taxis—he really had, I

      should be sorry, I think this is the ("I

      know I have complained I am quite well"

      quit nudging)—croissants

      outshine absinthe as "la plus, plus sans

      egal" though what I most care about

      is another sip of my Pepsi-Cola. Miners

      tell me about the day, like a pack of

      cards, her girlfriend split for Toronto. By

      the ocean, gripped in such an

      embrace—these were blizzard

      conditions & no time for gliding—

      she promised to keep in touch. The ice

      floes, at this point we had already floated

      far past our original sightings, made for a

      pretty picture but mostly nobody payed attention.

      The next best thing, New York draft, my

      own opinion, the National Express, no

      doubt, no luck, next election, next

      month…. Together, though not always in the

      same degree, with a sense of their

      unworthiness & admiration as to the number

      that are wonderfully changed without any

      motive, view, design, desire, or principle of

      action. "How much is there, in particular,

      in the things which have been observed."

      "How lovely did these principles render him

      a life." Next session, several occasions,

      seems to say, thanking you for, so there will

      be a, that is my—. At last the soup

      is piping hot, the decks swashed, all appurtenances

      brushed aside. Across the parking lot you

      can still hear the desultory voices of the men

      chatting about the dreary affaires de la monde

      that they seem to find so interesting. You

      take some white flowers out of the vase, the

      one you postured that you no longer cared about

      but which is as close to your heart as

      that chair from which you wistfully stare

      at the charming floral tableau, & bring

      them into the kitchen where you fix yourself a

      bowl of ice cream. It was as close as

      that. With a heart chilling suddenness,

      the ground itself vibrating rhythmically to

      your various aversions, a man pushes a

      wheelbarrow full of fruit around the curve

      just out-of-view. Canned peas kept frozen

      out of an intense confusion &, greatly moved

      by such things, a kind of light without heat,

      a head stored with notions & speculations,

      with a cold & unaffected disposition, as on the

      one hand there must sometimes be. "If the

      great things of religion are rightly understood,

      they will affect the heart." Still, what an absurd

      figure a poor weak man makes who in

      a thunder storm goes against the flashes of

      lightning with sword in hand. "No vision of

      loveliness could have touched me as deeply

      as this sad sight." In the summer

      blackouts crippled the city & in the winter

      snowstorms: & yet the spirit of

      the place—a certain je ne sais quoi that

      lurks, like the miles of subway tunnels, electrical

      conduits, & sewage ducts, far below the surface—

      perseveres. Green leather chairs are easily

      forgotten just as the bath water brings

      only minor entertainment. But we have

      higher hopes. Let me just for a minute

      recount the present standings. There is

      no more white chocolate & the

      banks are on holiday in Jamaica. All

      the cigarettes have already been lit &

      the mountains climbed & the chills

      gotten over. It is the end of the

      line. Even nostalgia has been used up &

      the moths have been busy making their way

      through all your very favorite attire. True,

      there are still some loose ends, last minute

      details that will never really be completed,

      but in the main there is nothing left to

      do. All the guests have gone home & the

      dishes are done. The telephone is off the

      hook. It is written that the wisdom

      of the wise will be destroyed &

      the understanding of the prudent will be

      brought to nothing. & so it becomes

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1