Statement

An impulse toward poetry is an impulse toward friendship; it's a drive toward and away from complication and complexity.

Blogroll

Welcome Suzi Steffen to the blogroll, blogging on art, culture, food, and so forth in Eugene.

Socio-economics of Poesy, Pt. 1

About a dozen years ago, I ran into a now-famous poet in the poetry aisle of our local used bookstore.  Or rather, he ran into me.  I was paging through a copy of James Merrill's The Changing Light at Sandover when the fellow turned to me and began making small talk.  After a couple of moments he glanced down at the book in my hand and said, "Huh. James Merrill.  I won't read him.  He was a millionaire.  What does a millionaire know about life?"

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Are there any poets you won't read because external details of the poet's life turn you off?  Besides Ezra Pound.

Still Here

I've been away for ten days for no reason in particular--all 3 of you who read this blog may have noticed.   Or maybe not.

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Still working my through George R. R. Martin's Clash of Kings.  I'm almost finished and look forward to discussing it with Bennet.

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It's been a pretty bleak week and a half here--a lot of slushy snow and rain.  We're in the midst of that long winter stretch that always brings on the doldrums.  That and my daughter's third birthday this past weekend have made for not a lot on my plate aside from brooding and too much sleeping.

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All that said, I hope to get back to my Dream Songs discussion with Bennet over the next few days.  One of us is supposed to pick a poem to discuss next, though I'm not sure we are any further along in the process of setting down any actual "rules" than we were a week or ten days ago. If I have time this evening--or rather, inclination, I may attempt a look at Dream Song #28, one of the relatively few with an "actual" title:  "Snow Line."   Watch this space for it.

In the meantime, you can read my responses to Bennet's initial two posts in his comment boxes.

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