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Martin J. Walker wrote: > > Odd, Sevanthi, that you mention Poetry Nation, the forerunner of PN Review, > as reactionary (I can't say, as I started reading it later), since nowadays > it with its associated publishing company Carcanet promotes such writers as > John Peck, duly praised by Frederick in one of the following mails > (unfortunately I haven't read _Argura_, only the other 2 vols.) and hardly > what one would call a "formalist". > I forgot to mention any poetry apart from Zagajewski & the anthology ~ I'm > reading & rereading the mysterious poems in Harriet Zinnes: _Plunge_ > and still trying to make out why I love reading Robert Kelly's work most, > together with Allen Curnow & Thom Gunn, of living poets, by rereading _The > Time of Voice_. > Martin I meant earlier, when Martin first mentioned him, to add my recommendation re Zagajewski - less austere than Milosz, but still with that nobility one finds in Milosz, Z. Herbert, and other E. Europeans - the ability to speak clearly of human suffering, not just of one's own. I ended a reading with Z's Holocaust poem - I don't have it in front of me; it's the one that ends "We have nowhere to go" - at the Jewish Community Center here some years ago, and the response was one of those silences that are infinitely beyond applause. As for Kelly - I always cite his work when people doubt whether one can write a lot (I write a lot) and maintain a high average. - Another, tho not as prolific, is Willis Barnstone, whose Algebra of Night, selected poems 1948-1998, Sheep Meadow Press, is a great treat. He translated Borges and Borges liked him and his poetry. Off poetry reading - if you want something deeply scary, try Dreamer of the Day by Kevin Coogan. Biography of F. P. Yockey, an American leader and theoretician of post-WW2 international fascism. Caught and suicided 1960, after years on run. His influence lingers. And Jad Adams' Madder Music, Stronger Wine, bio of Ernest Dowson - sad and memorable.