Some Early Reactions to My Book, Explorations

Richard Trousdell, professor of theater, University of Massachusets, Amherst: "I just received your beautiful book. How wonderfully designed it is, that splendid cover, your picture with the poem on the back, the type face so elegant, the whole thing just speaks of your spare, eloquent style. I can't wait to dip into it more fully and frequently, but its very appearance speaks for you wonderfully. I'd certainly see to it that the Times Literary Supplement gets a review copy. Meanwhile, sincere congratulations on a marvellous accomplishment."

Frank Basler, business consultant, Bridgeport, Connecticut: "Thank you again for you book of poems. I read one or two each morning and am loving them!"

Connie Wanek, Duluth, Minnesota, poet and winner of Library of Congress fellowship, among other prizes: "Thanks so much for your book, which came in the mail a few days ago...I'm enjoying the poems very much."

Adèle Bloch, Manhattan neighbor of my daughter: "Your father is a wonderful poet: his imagery is vivid, tactile and imaginative, his sense of nature and of the passage of time most evocative.”

"Your father’s opus sits between Goethe and Victor Hugo whenever I don’t reread it. It has a multilevel appeal."

Katharine Hazen, poet, Northampton, Mass.: "What a perfectly beautifully made little book, I've never seen a lovelier one, everything is done right. I should learn a lot from the simplicity and directness of the poet's voice."

David Davies, a friend from my international development days: "Your wonderful book of poems arrived yesterday, and I've dived in with great pleasure."

"I read your book of poems the other day and was full of wonder at how much you've captured of my life."

"Your book may be a hidden treasure. If you can get a review or two, you may be overwhelmed with sales.

"Madlyn Smith, Dartmouth College faculty wife, I keep your book on my bedside table. They are all so good but I do have favorites... "Polished Stones,""Memorial Day" (could be Hanover), "Silver Is the Color of My True Love's Hair," and more, more, more!!!

Betsy Loughran, author, Belchertown Massachusetts. “I haven't thanked you properly for your book. It arrived just as I was in the last throes of getting my book to the publisher… But still I'm best at the poem a day. Two that I read this morning were "Life and Death" and "Pullman Memories." I agree that life is more interesting than death... As to Pullman Memories - I certainly have very similar ones… So thank you. I will enjoy dipping into the book with my morning coffee for the next several weeks.”


Favorite Quotes

“The art of poetry is not to say everything.” Servius Maurus Honoratus, 4th century Roman grammarian

"Of the many definitions of poetry, the simplest is still the best: 'memorable speech.' " W.H.Auden


A Few Provocative Opinions

We consider some poetry great not despite our inability to understand it but because we can’t understand it.

Poetry critics love the cryptic. It gives them something to interpret.

Writing poetry is so popular because it’s the only form of writing in which you’re not likely to be widely criticized for incomprehensibility.

Poetry is the only form of writing in which ambiguity is considered a virtue.

The dominant mode of contemporary poetry is studied incoherence.

Contemporary poets devote a good deal of intellect to making their work incomprehensible.

If poetry that can mean something different to every reader is good, isn’t the ultimate poem a blank sheet of paper?

There’s an arms race among contemporary poets to see who can be the most arcane and solipsistic.

Poetry today is a form of intellectual machismo.

Contemporary poetry seldom delights. Reading it is more often a form of forced labor.

The trouble with much poetry today is that it tries too hard to convert emotional experiences into intellectual ones, and succeeds too often.

Contemporary poetry, like serial music, has alienated its audience. It represents the triumph of theory over experience.

With post-modernism they’ve squeezed all the joy out of poetry.

It isn’t the form that makes a poem. It’s the feeling.

Ultimately, what a poem has to say is more important than how it says it.

The essence of poetry is feeling. All else is ornamentation.

The problem with contemporary poetry is that it’s become an academic discipline.

Beware the poetry-academic complex.

Many contemporary poets think they live in a gated community. Actually they live in a ghetto, and have locked themselves in.

Exaggeration is one of the most common faults of bad poetry.

It isn’t rhyme that makes a poem.

Some poets hear music in their heads. In others’ you’ll hear the grinding of gears.

Poetry is the art of the implied.

In poetry, connotation is everything.

Taste in poetry is like taste in food, essentially arbitrary.

Ultimately what we like or dislike about a poet is his worldview.

Poetry is a narcissistic business.