sw00229olp-poets

See Bill Knott's



February 17, 2007, and
February 21, 2007, entries
at his typepad.com place.
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In one of those entries/ his
pointing to Jorie Graham
led me to poets.org/ where
I read 3 of her poems and
a 1996 interview of her I
found enriching.  Also, I
became aware of Earth
Took of Earth: 100 Great
Poems of the English Language,
an anthology she edited.  I am
going to seek it out at the
library.
-
-
All of this has led me to consider
once again my own situation as a
poet, and it moved me to reconfirm
what I have long held:  I am going
to continue to write because I need
to; and whether I write superbly or
poorly when what I write is compared
to what others write is not and cannot/
be an imprisoning concern to me.  I
am unique, just as each other is, and
I have a story to tell; and, yes, I am
going to try to tell it as well as I can;
but the important points are: 
   I must attend my need to tell it
   and
   I must pursue--in the best ways
   I deem appropriate--the answers
   to (even if such answers cannot
   be found) who I am and who 
   each other is and what each dot
   and ripple is in the mystical warps
   of space and time and dimensions
   beyond.  Woh!  Am I a fool, or
   what?  Something of both.  No
   matter though.  I know, as Bill
   Knott knows--though he is more
   certain about it than I yet am,
   Homo sapiens may well be a dead
   manifestation.  Years ago in one 
   of my sonnets I/ recognized that
   possibility, and made my peace
   with it.  So, though I have/ dozens
   of times been at the edge of death,
   I have been/ allowed to go on, and
   go on I shall, learning, celebrating,
   treasuring.



Brian A. J. Salchert