The Poet Like An Acrobat Climbs On

Well, I Didn't Know How To Draw Very Well Back Then, In The '40s And '50s.

Constantly Risking Absurdity And Death Whenever He Performs Above The Heads Of His Audience, The Poet, Like An Acrobat, Climbs On Rhyme To A High Wire Of His Own Making.

Western Civilization Has Been In A State Of Decline Since The Edwardian Age, Say 1910. That Was The Height Of Greco-roman European Civilization. Then There Was The First World War. That Was The Beginning Of The End. That Civilization Has Been In A Decline Ever Since. But From The American Triumphalist Point Of View Our Wonderful Electronic Revolution Is Really The Forefront Of An Ongoing Wonderful Civilization.

Poetry Is The Shadow Cast By Our Streetlight Imaginations.

You Can Publish A Poem You Think Is A Very Important Poem, And You Don't Hear A Word From Anyone. [...] You Can Publish A Book Of Poetry By Dropping It Off A Cliff And Waiting To Hear An Echo. Quite Often, You'll Never Hear A Thing. So Doing That, Using Older Work, Puts It In A Context, And That Sort Of Forces The Reader To Realize What Its Importance Is-if It Has Any. Everything Needs A Context. You're Not Going To Recognize A Poet Unless You Have A Context.