Studying Hunger Journals

Bernadette Mayer

June 2011

In 1972 Bernadette Mayer began this project as an aid to psy­cho­log­i­cal coun­sel­ing, writ­ing in par­al­lel jour­nals so that, as she wrote in one (in bed, on sub­ways, at par­ties, etc.), her psy­chi­a­trist read the other. Using col­ored pens to “color-code emo­tions,” she recorded dreams, events, mem­o­ries, and reflec­tions in a lan­guage at once free-ranging and precise—a work that cre­ates its own poet­ics. She sought “a work­able code, or short­hand, for the tran­scrip­tion of every event, every motion, every tran­si­tion” of her own mind and to “per­form this process of trans­la­tion” on her­self in the inter­est of evolv­ing an inno­v­a­tive, inquir­ing lan­guage. Study­ing Hunger Jour­nals reg­is­ters this inten­tion within a body of poetry John Ash­bery has called “magnificent.”

Made pub­lic at last in its gor­geous var­i­ous and unstint­ing entirety, Study­ing Hunger Jour­nals reveals itself to be one of the great in fact epic works of a move­ment that could never be given a name. No label fit for such lim­it­less activ­ity, its terms being those of our rest­less lan­guage and its relent­less go-betweens that move and may alter. Attend there­fore and let them have their way, these words given with­out let and best received in kind.
—Clark Coolidge

We have been wait­ing a long time—decades, in fact—for the pub­li­ca­tion of Study­ing Hunger Jour­nals, so this is an occa­sion to celebrate—that they have come into the world, into the light, and into our hands. Mayer’s exper­i­ment, her tran­scrip­tion of con­scious­ness, is time­less and sexy. There is gen­tle genius in her heroic quest to be “an observer of self in process.”
—Brenda Coultas

Some­one irri­tated me recently by say­ing “Our time lacks a poet’s poet. You know, a poet who gets you writ­ing.” SHAME ON YOU I said. YOU ARE LIVING ON THE PLANET WHERE BERNADETTE MAYER LIVES AND WRITES! Are there big­ger shoul­ders we stand on today? I don’t think so. Every time I’m in the same room as Bernadette I look around and think, “She is the best poet and smartest per­son
here!” My reli­gion is Poetry and Bernadette Mayer is High Priest­ess!
—CAConrad