Twilight of the Male Ego: Poems

By Klipschutz

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964444097
• ISBN13: 9780964444096
• Release Date: June 2002
• Publisher: Tsunami, Incorporated

Customer Reviews

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Burrito, and other poems

Review of "Twilight of the Male Ego" by KlipschutzWallace Stevens, in his "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," published in 1917, gives the reader no portrait of any blackbird, but rather one of himself, particularly as he is involved in a life, and a poetics, of dealing with "out there" indisputable facts, one after another. Taking his cue from Stevens, Klipschutz (a conflation of the poet's birth name, Kurt Lipschutz), portrays his kinship with, and differences from him, in his own poem, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Burrito" (a poem first issued as a broadside in 1990). This poem is a compelling self-portrait, which also has the additional benefit to the reader of poetry of being a deft critique of Stevens' original. At least two birds, or burritos, are killed by one stone, then. (Klipschutz' connoisseurship of such clichés as the latter is another matter that we must animadvert to presently.)To compare and contrast, then, let's begin with "way" number one. Stevens is solitary, in the mountains, where the only plural is twenty mountains. His eye goes, solitary to solitary, to the moving eye of a lone blackbird. Among twenty snowy mountains, The only moving thing Was the eye of the blackbirdKlipschutz' corresponding verse presents an extreme contrast-we are plunged into dense community. Instead of "snowy mountains", we are given the same number of "pasty faces." And instead of the "only moving thing" we are plunged into a commonality of stinky breath. On twenty pasty faces, The only thing in common Was burrito breath.In stanza 5, each poet reveals a pair of pleasures. "The beauty of inflections" is represented by the moment of hearing the bird's whistle. "The beauty of innuendoes" takes us into the moment of memory, and rumination, "just after." I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after.Stevens wants to establish a preference, but lacks enough knowledge. Klipschutz, on the other hand, has no preference, and knows he cannot decide. And it's pleasures he's after, not beauties. Though we can assume that beauty brought pleasure to Stevens, he merely hints. Klipschutz is more extreme. It's "obsession" with the burrito present to the taste buds in his mouth, or "abandon" when it goes down the hatch. I can't decide between them. The pleasure of obsession, Or the pleasure of abandon. The burrito in the mouth Or the throat.A third, very instructive contrast, is to be found in stanza 8 of each poet. With bows to the "isness" of the blackbird, Stevens reveals his interest in "noble accents / and lucid, inescapable rhythms." Anchored by blackbird-like facts, these are the salient features of his poetics. I know noble accents And lucid, inescapable rhythms; But I know, too, That the blackbird is involved In what I know.Klipschutz does not claim to know anything. He restricts himself