Language Extenders
In Anne Sexton’s Pulitzer Prize for poetry book, Transformations, she asked Kurt Vonnegut to write the foreword.
His foreword:
“I asked a poet friend one time what it was that poets did, and he thought awhile, and then he told me, “They extend the language.” I thought that was neat, but it didn’t make me grateful in my bones for poets. Language extenders I can take or leave alone.” By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Asking myself when reading this quote, this has been my flow, my drama, my struggle with words flowing onto paper. More poetic without structure. A stream of consciousness found in me in phrases and random inaccessible thoughts looking for meaning. Writing was my second love, men with power were my first, “daddy” figures. I extended myself in my own world of Art forms which were abstract. I spent almost 3 months on a painting in Minnesota at University of Minnesota Duluth. I sat in concentrated effort in those days. Other students would look at the painting and wanted labels or visualized forms to make sense of the painting. They saw a river, a dog, whatever. I saw and felt flow while scraping paint, hiding colors under layers of white and black. This large painting expressed power and understanding I longed for. I was wanting to figure it out myself, wanting them to figure me out as an abstraction.
We left the beautiful city of Duluth resting on hills overlooking Lake Superior. There was no time to stay and understand this city. I had a standing joke: While living in San Francisco, I thought nowhere could exist with snow and such hills. In Duluth, temperatures fell where oil would freeze in cars if left outside in the winter. A heating coil had to be inserted into the oil pan for this reason. During snow storms, cars slid down the hill through intersections. On the cross streets traffic stopped automatically. Life had made a liar of me for there were the hills of San Francisco in Duluth.
The Art Department in Duluth supported my style as it was Avant Garde. One professor from Chicago was into sound sculpture and hung musical wires from trees. Another professor cast pork chops in resin as a sculptural type of painting. I spent hours painting and experimenting on carving out my style. Once I draped a young lady in reflective fabric and bathed her with flashing lights and photographic images. I wanted power and UMD allowed me to major in Art Administration and Politics. The Art Department had become family to me but we were too far from our real family and old friends.
Ron looked for other opportunities closer to home. We moved to the city known for snow, Buffalo, NY. After the cold of Duluth, I told people we had to move to Buffalo for the weather. I went to University of Buffalo and Ron, a professor, was in another college. We went to separate Universities. I wanted to finish my Bachelors which was taking far too long in all our moves. Art administration was no longer possible. I was able to get a degree in Political Science by default. Ultimately very laughable. Politics in Minnesota seemed clear to me. It wasn't that way for me in New York. In Duluth if they said they would do something, they did. This was a concept I needed. I did take an elective in Creative Writing that stirred me. I began word painting on paper as I worked at City Hall. Abstractions flowed with words creating a poetic flow. I was finding myself.
A professor in Buffalo and I became friends. It was the late 70’s and I was an older student by that time. I got invited to a party thrown for Alan Ginsburg's birthday. A tall man later walked in and I was nudged by another student telling me: “It’s Kurt Vonnegut, he came to wish Alan a happy birthday.” Magic was following me again I thought.
