Limited time, and my library still in a scramble, but I'll play one more
hand of this dumb game.
1. "laundress n. A woman employed to wash and iron clothes or linens."
Americn heritage Dictionary. That's the entire definition--no other
meanings. As poets both you and Page have as a primary responsibility care
in the use of words.
2. Among the problems with the poem is its generality. The landscape words
are references to ideas about landscape that we're all assumed to share.
And the poet doesn't place herself within the world--she exists in the poem
only as the voice speaking rather than as a participant in the world as she
describes it. Hard to find a whole lot of good poems that share that
quality of experience etherialized. For my own choice I'd take one of any
number of Basho haiku, American Indian, something from Lorine Niedecker or
Kenneth Rexroth, Ponge's "Le Pré, and I can't handily find any of those
books. But Gary Snyder in Regarding Wave, which did come to hand, has "All
the Spirit Powers Went to their Dancing Place," which I think would more
than do the trick. Copyright forbids my posting it here.
3. The poem brought back memories of pleasant childhood experiences for
you. Proust ate a rather ordinary pastry and wrote Remembrance of Things
Past. Your experience doesn't validate the poem's nutritional value any
more than Proust's does that of the madeleine.
3. One must have absolute loyalty to the practice. As poets it's what we
live and die by, and we don't have much else to hang on to. Any poem that
shirks that responsibility is an affront to all of us. Worth getting hot
under the collar about. Chill out if you don't really care.
Mark
At 11:39 AM 2/2/2001 -0600, Chris Hayden wrote:
>>Ram & others,
>>What was she thinking? Hacker, I mean...she picked the poem.
>>
>Chris Hayden reiterates: I've heard much cursing the darkness but not one
>candle lit. If this poem aint got the jazz, what would you put in its place
>(and again, I wouldn't substitute anything)
>
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