4.19.2006

Let's talk about some (possibly literary) values :

understatement, impersonality, restraint, objectivity, historical sense.

Respect for the speech and discourses which are not poetry, respect for the experience which is not language. The stoniness which is not the word "stone", but inspired it, evoked its evocation.

Serious, not turgid; light, not facile; sweet, not saccharine; bitter, not sour; clear-sighted, not jaded; generous, not egotistical; fair, kind & true.

What might temper & strengthen & sweeten the "scene"? Those things that are outside it. When poets accept the challenge of the world of thought, language & experience which is beyond their local disputes, their fickle enthusiasms for themselves & each other.

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