>But this issue seems to go beyond your typical existential awareness of
>mortality. If the poem has some kind of eternity to it, I can bear it, I
>think. But not that the poem as good as *never existed*.
Eternity's only relative, eh? I mean, immortality in poetry terms means
still reading Sappho, which is less than an eyeblink in those geological
or astronomical terms. And doesn't Spinoza formulate the eternal in
terms of a kind of absolute present?
Mind you, what you're describing is often what it feels like to be a poet
in Australia...
Best
Alison
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