An Old Dispute; I agree (and disagree)
Date: 1/27/2003 8:25:35 PM Eastern Standard Time
Well, David Lehman,
it's an old dispute between
Li Po -- Tu Fu-- Scene:
O Tu Fu says Li
you're suffering poetry--
My kind just flies high--
Ben Jonson wanted Bard
to blot more. Now you know I'm
not hair on his beard--
Dave, I'm just playing...
Some think it close to praying.
It's all just saying...
No one hates typos
More than I do, but we'll clean
Them later (and schmooze). -- [DS, 1 / 27 / 03]
Back from Detroit
Detroit's a riot --
or was in '67.
What were you doing?
I was waking at
six and carrying mail in
Harlem and the Heights.
Days of ‘67.
What changed was the rate of change.
You said: read Rimbaud.
I joined the Poem
Team. You were on it, as were
Mitch, Les, Chuck, Hilton.
We gave readings at
women's colleges such as
Sadie Lou and Vassar.
Mitch Sisskind read "A
Mean Teacher" and re-met his
wife of the future.
Enough of those days.
I wish not for the snows of
yesterday but now.
The snow is coming
fast and white, covering the
balsams and cedars. [DL, 1 / 27 / 03]
I muse and ignore the news but can’t elude the weather
Maybe all teachers
are mean, I thought, but now you
know I snow so slow.
Just one thing is real.
Snow. The sooner you know this,
The easier life.
And by snow I mean
Snow. So much pain in your mind
or mine: we need snow.
Ah, my friend, may this
day bring you an hour of clear
vision and no thought. [–- DL, 1 / 29 / 03]
Each month a fatal new form? Thanks, etc. Thanks
Date: 1/29/2003 5:20:44 PM Eastern Standard Time
My best lecture was
"Snow in Art and Litera-
ture" post real snow-storm!
Maybe we should write
each month in new forms: couplets
for Feb in droplets!
aphorisms: March
villanelle for long April'
May is all prose (lit)
June for happy songs;
letters during summer's wrongs;
and for spoon and tongs?
all Fall prose Rimbauds;
while some desire more "Sri Lankas"** **new form where you ferment
nouns in names from maps of In-
we'd return: tankas dian sub-continent
Christmas ices streams –
(sweet permissive month of dreams--)
we'll do ANYTHING! [DS, 1 / 29 / 03]
