Dear Rebecca,
The "apple trees" line is a reference to poetry - moving away from actual
apple trees
to a metaphor for poetry, specifically romantic poems.
I should probaby rework that somehow.
I hope you enjoy Keywest. In off season, it is a nice place to get away and
relax. I spent the better part of one day, in Hemmingway's garden, writing.
The gardens are nice, the hibiscus were blooming while I was there.
Take care and keep well,
Deborah
>I can't say if it's what you mean to say, but the poem
>seems stronger,
>I still wonder at this line:
>
> > What do apple trees mean to you or anyone really?
>
>it's a good line, but I wonder why the speaker exempts
>herself, why she claims some special knowledge that
>makes her question only 'you or anyone' not herself.
>
> > There is no return to Eden, no end to selfish love
> > stories
>
>this is good, I think, I don't know, I'm going to Key
>West tomorrow and don't really want to go, in part
>because there is no return to an Eden that would never
>be from the beginning, but perhaps the orchids and the
>mango ice and the cigars and even the salt air in the
>palms will make me feel that again, as if present.
>Some things are a torment, and you're lucky I think
>that it resolves into words, hieroglyphics of exile,
>birds, and stories, which I can see now, though I
>couldn't in my first reading, is really central to the
>poem. And that's nice, too, that feeling that when the
>speaker is home she dreams of home and when she's home
>she dreams of a pleasant island of grapefruits and
>tangerines. So I think this revision has found sort of
>its main tributary. And this poem, in general, is much
>a development in your work.
>
>best,
>
>Rebecca
>http://mail.yahoo.com
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