Writing professor and author Kenneth Goldsmith once declared, “The world is full of texts, more or less interesting; I do not wish to add any more.” Instead, he proposes that because the world is already so filled with all of these texts that writers should not produce more but rather “learn to negotiate the vast quantity that exists.” It is how we process all of these texts, according to Goldsmith, that “distinguishes my writing from yours.”
A portion of Deserts by Jen Bervin
Over the past century, poets have gotten rather good at this navigation and separating themselves from others via their unique methods. Annie Dillard, for instance, erases , while Jonathan Safran Foer cuts out words, leaving some dangling, just barely still attached to the page. Mary Ruefle uses white out to cover words . Tristian Tzara pulls the words of newspaper articles out of a bag on stage and arranges them in front of an audience. Jen Bervin stitches over sentences with a needle and thread. Tom Phill