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Keston thinks I dont find the latest poetry poetic. This is only
partly true. Now to think about it. I applaud the vigour of much
of the language (Helen Macdonald, Nick Johnson) but bemoan the
lack of structure in their work. Karlien's latest piece was quite
brilliant but me, trained as a mathematician, found it lacking
that structure inherent in my academic mind. When Keston produced
a poem with some structure attached to it I lept upon it for my
magazine. Krumm has had some good pieces too which interest me.
More than Ira which was concrete poetry.

So all-in-all the language is healthy but the structure weak.
What I say to Nick is that you have to learn to tell a story.
That is what we have been doing for thousands of years.
That involves structure. The story I choose to tell is that
of my own life which I find the material that interests me
most. But that is not everybody's cup of tea and is not in
favour with SChmidt etc. Although Schmidt's best work (and only work)
is in that vein as he recognised in his `Selected POems'.

Everybody enjoy themselves in CAmbridge. Cheers.


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