Dear Robin,<\/p>\n
Enclosed you find the first of the publi\u00adca\u00adtions of White Rabbit Press. The second will be much handsomer.<\/p>\n
You are right that I don\u2019t now need your cri\u00adti\u00adcisms of indi\u00advi\u00addual poems. But I still want them. It\u2019s pro\u00adba\u00adbly from old habit \u2013 but it\u2019s an awful\u00adly old habit. Halfway through After Lorca<\/i> I dis\u00adco\u00adve\u00adred that I was wri\u00adting a book ins\u00adtead of a series of poems and indi\u00advi\u00addual cri\u00adti\u00adcism by anyone sud\u00adden\u00adly became less impor\u00adtant. This is true of my Admonitions<\/i> which I will send you when com\u00adplete. (I have eight of them alrea\u00addy and there will pro\u00adba\u00adbly be four\u00adteen inclu\u00adding, of course, this letter.)<\/p>\n
The trick natu\u00adral\u00adly is what Duncan lear\u00adned years ago and tried to teach us \u2013 not to search for the per\u00adfect poem but to let your way of wri\u00adting of the moment go along its own paths, explore and retreat but never by ful\u00adly rea\u00adli\u00adzed (confi\u00adned) within the boun\u00adda\u00adries of one poem. This is where we were wrong and he was right, but he com\u00adpli\u00adca\u00adted things for us by saying that there is no such thing as good or bad poe\u00adtry. There is \u2013 but not in rela\u00adtion to a single poem. There is real\u00adly no single poem.<\/p>\n
That is why all my stuff from the past (except the Elegies<\/i> and Troilus<\/i>) looks foul to me. The poems belong now\u00adhere. They are one night stands filled (the best of them) with their own emo\u00adtions, but poin\u00adting now\u00adhere, as mea\u00adnin\u00adgless as sex in a Turkish bath. It was not my anger or my frus\u00adtra\u00adtion that got in the way of my poe\u00adtry but the fact that I vie\u00adwed each anger and each frus\u00adtra\u00adtion as unique \u2013 some\u00adthing to be conver\u00adted into poe\u00adtry as one would exchange forei\u00adgn money. I lear\u00adned this from the English Department (and from the English Department of the spi\u00adrit \u2013 that great quag\u00admire that lurks at the bot\u00adtom of all of us) and it rui\u00adned ten years of my poe\u00adtry. Look at those other poems. Admire them if you like. They are beau\u00adti\u00adful but dumb.<\/p>\n
Poems should echo and ree\u00adcho against each other. They should create reso\u00adnances. They can\u00adnot live alone any more than we can.<\/p>\n
So don\u2019t send the box of old poe\u00adtry to Don Allen. Burn it or rather open it with Don and cry over the pos\u00adsible books that were buried in it \u2013 the Songs Against Apollo<\/i>, the Gallery of Gorgeous Gods<\/i>, the Drinking Songs<\/i> \u2013 all incom\u00adplete, all abor\u00adtive \u2013 all incom\u00adplete, all abor\u00adtive because I thought, like all abor\u00adtio\u00adnists, that what is not per\u00adfect had no real right to live.<\/p>\n
Things fit toge\u00adther. We knew that \u2013 it is the prin\u00adciple of magic. Two incon\u00adse\u00adquen\u00adtial things can com\u00adbine toge\u00adther to become a conse\u00adquence. This is true of poems too. A poem is nver to be jud\u00adged by itself alone. A poem is never by itself alone.<\/p>\n
This is the most impor\u00adtant let\u00adter that you have ever received. <\/p>\n
Love,
\nJack<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Robin, Enclosed you find the first of the publi\u00adca\u00adtions of White Rabbit Press. The second will be much hand\u00adso\u00admer. You are right that I don\u2019t now need your cri\u00adti\u00adcisms of indi\u00advi\u00addual poems. But I still want them. It\u2019s pro\u00adba\u00adbly from old habit \u2013 but it\u2019s an awful\u00adly old habit. Halfway through After Lorca I [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"quote","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19337","post","type-post","status-publish","format-quote","hentry","category-non-classe","post_format-post-format-quote"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testanonpertinente.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}