because the poetry matters, not
> the common mortal reek
Damn fine -- tho I think poetry is the common mortal reek.
kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]> wrote: tribute, yessss.
KS
On 01/04/07, Kenneth Wolman wrote:
> Probably this is an April Fools' joke without intending to be.
> *Some*thing was said here that made the wheels move.
>
> COMMON SPACE
>
> Me. William Carlos Williams.
> Utter presumptuousness.
> It is presumptuous to say lives intersect
> by the accident of physical proximity
> yet they intersect by the accident of
> physical proximity.
>
> I lived in Lyndhurst, New Jersey,
> from April 1997 to August 2000.
> I lived across the highway from Rutherford,
> Williams' home town.
> Long before, in 1977, I'd worked in that town.
> I'd pass the house at 9 Ridge Road, the house
> his son--also a doctor--took over.
>
> Are poets remembered? Everything in Rutherford
> it seems is named for Williams: the library,
> an Arts Center, everything but the train station
> and veterinarian's office.
>
> An intersection. A woman I worked with in 1977
> years before had as her pediatrician
> Doctor Williams, and then his son who also
> was Doctor Williams, and she was shocked when I told her
> the older man was among America's greatest poets.
>
> She couldn't line it up. She remembered
> a nice old guy who made house calls
> and had a kindly bedside manner.
> If he's giving you a needle
> his touch matters more than his poetry.
>
> The last time I saw the house, a young woman
> was playing out in front with her toddling daughter.
> Did they know the heritage they'd bought?
> There was no plaque until five years after I'd gone.
> Until then it was just another house,
> a place to live in.
> Can Poetry Matter? Not when you've got your hands full
> with a toddler running amok.
>
> He is buried in Hillside Cemetery in Lyndhurst.
> There are two sections: Jewish and Everyone Else.
> Dr. Williams was an Everyone Else.
> I never visited the grave
> because the poetry matters, not
> the common mortal reek
> or the aesthetics of stonecutting.
>
> KTW/4-1-07
>
> --
> ------------------
> Ken Wolman rainermaria.typepad.com
>
> "It takes a big man to cry. It takes a really big man to
> laugh at that man."
>
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Don't pick lemons.
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