{"id":4899,"date":"2025-03-13T14:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/?page_id=4899"},"modified":"2025-03-27T16:52:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-27T16:52:19","slug":"out-of-ur-new-selected-poems-1961-2012","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/out-of-ur-new-selected-poems-1961-2012\/","title":{"rendered":"Out of Ur: New &#038; Selected Poems 1961-2012"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\">[vc_row content_placement=&#8221;bottom&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741873638047{margin-top: 25px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;]<style>.vcex-heading.vcex_6a21d17b1871b{color:#000000;font-size:24px;font-weight:700;}<\/style><h1 class=\"vcex-heading vcex-heading-plain vcex-module wpex-text-balance wpex-heading wpex-text-2xl wpex-mb-0 vcex_6a21d17b1871b\"><span class=\"vcex-heading-inner wpex-inline-block\">Out of Ur: New &amp; Selected Poems 1961-2012<\/span><\/h1><style>.vcex-heading.vcex_6a21d17b18e9a{color:#000000;font-size:18px;font-weight:400;}<\/style><h2 class=\"vcex-heading vcex-heading-plain vcex-module wpex-text-balance wpex-heading wpex-text-2xl wpex-mb-20 vcex_6a21d17b18e9a\"><span class=\"vcex-heading-inner wpex-inline-block\">2013, Shearsman Books<\/span><\/h2><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/1848612583\/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&#038;camp=1789&#038;creative=390957&#038;creativeASIN=1848612583&#038;linkCode=as2&#038;tag=httpwwwvladim-20\" class=\"vcex-button theme-button grey inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span class=\"vcex-button-inner theme-button-inner wpex-flex wpex-flex-wrap wpex-items-center wpex-justify-center\">Buy on Amazon<\/span><\/a> [vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;]<style>.vcex-heading.vcex_6a21d17b1a32d{color:#000000;font-size:24px;font-weight:700;}<\/style><h1 class=\"vcex-heading vcex-heading-plain vcex-module wpex-text-balance wpex-heading wpex-text-2xl wpex-mb-10 vcex_6a21d17b1a32d\"><span class=\"vcex-heading-inner wpex-inline-block\">Introduction by Jessica Lowenthal at Kelly Writers House, October 17, 2013<\/span><\/h1>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; bottom_margin=&#8221;0px&#8221; color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; font_size=&#8221;14px&#8221;]Out of Ur&#8221; New &amp; Selected Poems 1961-2012 spans more than five decades of Rochelle Owens&#8217; innovative, influential and controversial work, and displays an extraordinary range of style, tone and experiment that is multigenre and multivocal.<\/p>\n<p>The recent poems take on many poetic tropes\u2014vision, sight, imagery, imagination\u2014and physicalizes them: we are not merely thinking, imagining beings, we are eyeball, abdomen, sphincter, skin, flesh, blood: the mammalian body and brain. To seek beauty can be a ravenous, painful quest\u2014akin to carving into flesh.<\/p>\n<p>The signature gesture that ties all of Owens&#8217; work together is a continual inventiveness\u2014a direct and challenging encounter with language. It is a focus on the concreteness of words, the typographic texture, an insistence on language as material.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=&#8221;1\/3&#8243;]<figure class=\"vcex-image vcex-module\"><div class=\"vcex-image-inner wpex-relative wpex-inline-block\"><img width=\"296\" height=\"440\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cover_out_of_ur.jpg\" class=\"vcex-image-img wpex-align-middle\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cover_out_of_ur.jpg 296w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/cover_out_of_ur-202x300.jpg 202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px\" \/><\/div><\/figure>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;bottom&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741873638047{margin-top: 25px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column]<div class=\"wpex-slider-preloaderimg \"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><div class=\"vcex-module wpex-slider slider-pro no-margin-thumbnails vcex-image-gallery-slider\" data-thumbnails=\"true\" data-thumbnail-height=\"auto\" data-auto-play-delay=\"5000\" data-buttons=\"false\" data-animation-speed=\"600\" data-height-animation-duration=\"500\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-slides sp-slides\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div><div class=\"wpex-slider-slide sp-slide\"><div class=\"wpex-slider-media\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_009.jpg\" class=\"skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_009.jpg 776w, 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sp-nc-thumbnails wpex-grid wpex-grid-cols-5\"><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_001-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_002-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_003-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_004-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_005-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_006-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_007-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_008-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_009.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_009.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_009-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_009-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><img width=\"776\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_010.jpg\" class=\"wpex-slider-thumbnail wpex-block wpex-w-100 sp-nc-thumbnail skip-lazy\" alt=\"\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" srcset=\"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_010.jpg 776w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_010-300x232.jpg 300w, https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/out_of_ur_new_and_selected_010-768x594.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 776px) 100vw, 776px\" \/><\/div><\/div>[\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=&#8221;middle&#8221;][vc_column]<style>.vcex-heading.vcex_6a21d17b1d7d4{color:#000000;font-size:24px;font-weight:700;}<\/style><h1 class=\"vcex-heading vcex-heading-plain vcex-module wpex-text-balance wpex-heading wpex-text-2xl wpex-mb-10 vcex_6a21d17b1d7d4\"><span class=\"vcex-heading-inner wpex-inline-block\">Commentary by Jerome Rothenberg with Pierre Joris, December 8, 2008<\/span><\/h1>[vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; bottom_margin=&#8221;30px&#8221; color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; font_size=&#8221;14px&#8221;]\n<p>I dreamed of a birdwoman. A fantastic creature with a human body and the head of a bird. She fed her young with chunks of flesh that she savagely tore out of her body with her beak. Always the flesh grew quickly back so that there was no loss or end of herself. (R.O.)<\/p>\n<p>There is a voice in Owens&#8217; work that seemed to some of us\u2014when first heard\u2014like a fierce &amp; unrelenting force of nature or like that, more aptly, of some biblical Isaiah or Devorah, or of some other cracked (but real) Prophet mockingly come back to life. &#8220;Beauty will be convulsive or it will not be,&#8221; Andr\u00e9 Breton had written in setting the Surrealist agenda, by which he meant (or we do) not beauty so much as poetry, with regard to which beauty is but one half (at best) of what we put into our workings. And Owens\u2014while she proclaimed herself, New York style, as &#8220;simply a poor working girl [from Brooklyn] who was not even a graduate of Brooklyn College or C.C.N.Y.&#8221;\u2014spoke a language even in her first poems (&#8220;Hunger \/ It is luck too. Hullabaloo Vishnu&#8221;) that called forth voices (Ball or Khlebnikov or Tzara) from a recent past that she &amp; we were newly claiming, making into our present. With her base in poetry, she came to a first public recognition through a series of plays (Futz, Beclch, He Wants Shih, The Karl Marx Play, others), to create what one of us would call &#8220;her theater of impulse&#8221; &amp; to make her for a time &#8220;perhaps the most profound tragic playwright in the American theater&#8221; (Ross Wetzteon, The Village Voice). What she had tapped into in herself were the sources of tragedy in ancient &#8220;goat-song&#8221; (pace Aristotle): a deliberate but disruptive mode of poetry, moving from what Toby Olson describes as &#8220;the grating nature of the inappropriate&#8221; to what he &amp; Jackson Mac Low both speak of as &#8220;controlled hysteria.&#8221; Writing further of the intelligence\u2014as well as passion\u2014that drives her work, Mac Low says: &#8220;I mean &#8230; by &#8216;controlled hysteria&#8217; &#8230; that the speaker, whether the poet, a persona, or a blend of both, while often incredibly vehement, threatens to cross over the line from vehemence to uncontrollable emotional outburst, but never actually crosses that line. This arouses a feeling of suspense even in those who do not realize whence that feeling arises: a very &#8216;theatrical&#8217; experience.&#8221; That it also arouses\u2014in us\u2014a feeling of uncontrollable laughter is the further, maybe deeper secret of her art.<\/p>\n[Commentary from Poems for the Millennium: The University of California Book of Modern &amp; Postmodern Poetry, volume 2, 1998.]\n<p>Source: Poems and Poetics[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row content_placement=&#8221;bottom&#8221; css=&#8221;.vc_custom_1741873638047{margin-top: 25px !important;}&#8221;][vc_column width=&#8221;2\/3&#8243;][vc_empty_space height=&#8221;50px&#8221;][vc_column_text css=&#8221;&#8221; bottom_margin=&#8221;0px&#8221; color=&#8221;#000000&#8243; font_size=&#8221;14px&#8221;]Out of Ur&#8221; New &amp; Selected Poems 1961-2012 spans more than five decades of Rochelle Owens&#8217; innovative, influential and controversial work, and displays an extraordinary range of style, tone and experiment that is multigenre and multivocal. The recent poems take on many poetic tropes\u2014vision, sight,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4899","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry","no-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5346,"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4899\/revisions\/5346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rochelleowens.net\/new\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}