When I wrote that poem what hit me even if it did not deal in names was
a tone quality that may have come from "Did I Miss Anything." Stephen
Dunn had given it to us the previous summer, I forget the context, and I
of course ordered a book when I got home. I don't recall enough about
it to remember whether he made much of his name elsewhere. There's a
certain fun in "giving up your anonymity" even though Wolman is not
Wolman anymore than Wayman is Wayman. Berryman of course did himself up
as Henry Pussycat but he might just as well have saved himself the
trouble. Louise Gluck wrote something about "sincerity" that made it
clear (to me) that the Berryman of "Love and Fame" or the Dream Songs is
not Berryman but a fictional construct who shares some of his
biographical details.
Anyway, I did a couple of years of adjuncting starting in 2002, and
began every semester by reading "Did I Miss Anything?" to classes to let
them know some of what I expected. It didn't help.
ken
-----------------------------
Ken Wolman
Miercom
www.mier.com
609-490-0200, ext. *8-14
>
> Hey Ken
>
> what is it with you W poets? Do you know Tom Wayman's work? He has a
> whole bunch of (usually quite funny) Wayman poems in the third person
> like this. I think I have passed on the ending of 'Life on the Land
> Grant Review' here:
>
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