This book has a lot of wonderful ideas I have never though of before, or at least not in detail. How rapid and leaping associations make poems powerful. Surrealism, of course, is the embodiment of this technique.But how does one achieve the leaps?

Writing and erasing some of the the links is of course a very basic way to achieve some sort of leaping thoughts, but not enough. What Bly states about the Spaniards of the 20th century - wild associations, emotion cascading in words on the page - and what Federico Garcia Lorca says about "the Duende" seems to be the key. Intense emotion and adrenaline help the brain reach a more "spiritual" plane, where associations occur like explosions in mine fields. To write as if we only have one poem left to write before we die, and to use that poem to amaze and stun the world we will leave behind. To keep building up that energy so the new "last" poem is better than the one before, never any less.

Sometimes poetry in the English language suffers periods of struggle to mimic what the Spanish poets of the 20th century accomplished; and there is something that doesn't quite transfer to English when these surreal poems are translated. Bly discusses many different issues with logic leaps and translations, using a variety of poems from different languages to demonstrate the effects of "leaping poetry". Leaping Poetry is a fascinating study on "logic leaps" and translation, I highly recommend it. ( )