"This is no pasture. One must / stick to the beginning. But now / things are starting over as before."

hi! y'all are not only making me feel the pressure of my own silence, but steve is even luring me out of the underbrush with pieces of holderlin...

holderlin is very linked with the album "beatles for sale" for me, because i had to write my big holderlin paper for undergrad when i was in berlin living with a host family, and they had a huge collection of beatles cds. i would listen to "beatles for sale" over and over while trying to type. i would especially listen to 'honey don't' ("everything about you is so doggone sweet/you got that sand all over your feet"). also, reading holderlin was really the first thing that made me feel that i was writing poetry absolutely wrong - before that i more felt that i was on this path and just had to go on writing, writing, and eventually the little one by one poems would perfect themselves. or i would learn how to write the perfect poem in this one after another style. but reading holderlin i realized that was a need to jump off the path...because he was writing so long ago and he was so twisted!! steve, when you were writing about difficulty versus ease, i was thinking about restlessness....not just rambling after something new, but (in frustrating hopes of) something newly expressive.

"It's something else to be sure,

Distinctions are
good. Each
and every
Has its own."

but then i also think about reading spicer on how he realized that he didn't just have to write one perfect poem, that he could write lots of pieces that all propped each other up. that has been such a major puzzle piece to me in looking for sustainable work. then you are groping around in the dark a little closer to home - because you're progressing thinking about inches of progress, sentence chains that get thrown out and don't have to end. sentence fishing reels. that is ease!

so do i like things difficult or easy?

catherine, i love the poem parts. you've tricked me into reading something and we know that leads to reading more things and a return to general awareness.

"......And as
A load of logs upon
The shoulders, there is much
to bear in mind. But the paths
Are evil. For like horses,
The captive elements
And ancient laws
Of the earth go astray. Yet always
The longing to reach beyond bounds. But much
To be retained. And loyalty a must.
But we shall not look forward
Or back. Let ourselves rock, as
On a boat, lapped by the waves."