Peter Riley wrote:
> re Gare du Nord's questionnaires---
>
> Is there than a way of asking (here or in Paris) what use people find in this ill-defined medium with regard perhaps to specific matters of world concern, so as to spark a discussion not of the concern in its own terms, but of poetry's entanglement with it?
Peter et al: have not seen your discussion with Coral Hull, but found
this in the current Rialto (along with a short John Welch poem) & wonder
if it might bring in some other thoughts on this topic. It's a letter
from Paul Stubbs, whose writing I have not seen:
"I just thought I'd write to let you know that I am giving up my
writing.
It's just that no one could ever possibly understand what type of
hardship and faith in a vision is needed. Especially when set against
modern and plain mediocre works whose almost fractious view of life
frankly bores, as much as it fits into a neat metrical box.
All of my attempts have stemmed from the phrase 'my badly spelt heart',
a phrase I thought at once utterly mine.
With literature comes a certain mutability and dream-time, which has
become too demanding to my health: poetry for me was always something
that could 'rearrange my face/ and give me another name'...." Paul
Stubbs, Norwich. [The Rialto #41 p54]
>From that: questions.
Would you want to encourage Mr Stubbs to return to writing? (If not, why
not?)
What might you say to do so?
Best, Pete.
ps I first typed in 'my badly spent heart' - if there'd been no Freud
there'd have been no slips.
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