Tuesday, June 25, 2024

PoemTalk #197: on Marjorie Welish's "Begetting Textile"

Today we release the latest episode in the PoemTalk Podcast series — a very impressive #197 — which focuses on Marjorie Welish's "Begetting Textile" sequence from 2004's Word Group (specifically poems 1, 2, 10,  and 13). Host Al Filreis was joined by Michelle Taransky, Sally Van Doren, and Christy Davids (shown from left to right) for this program. 

Filreis offers this lyrical take on the poems' impact in his write-up of the new episode: "The poems are texts in the sense of text inside the term textile. They are barely raveled. Phrase do and don't knit. A sweater is put on and overcomes mimesis. Fragmentation, the group agrees, is not the vibe — that’s too definitely indefinite." He continues, "Welish deploys phrasings on the page that convey the unraveling of work (and the meaning of work, especially women's work) rather than  fractioning, shattering, and atomizing," before asserting, "There is a wholeness to the untangling."

You can listen to this latest program and learn more about the show here. PoemTalk is a joint production of PennSound and the Poetry Foundation, aided by the generous support of Nathan and Elizabeth Leight. Browse the full PoemTalk archives, spanning more than a decade, by clicking here.