Old Post broken to two parts

More Duncan to Olsen letters

What more central love than the disturbance and trembling awakend by each new song; the calling up of one's own spirit in answer, the still center in the excitement that comes as the poems are comprehended. A challenge. But to the intoxicated mind a more marvelous alcohol--a nourishment. Of my own otherness. My entirely differentness. It's the coming back to the core of speech -- that poetry might be a revelation of the language written by, created by Man -- a closet of speech wherein one speaks with the vastest spirit -- a revelation of language not personality. What more central love than the comradeship in devotion to art?

Then, but it is not central yet, it is still coming in view, another devotion. The wisdom we seek. The counsels of the language. The purpose, the effort -- is part of the wisdom.


This speaks to how texture and spirit are connected. The words are teasing, tingling the mind, dancing with the synapses. And then the words move the reader. The reader gets "a nourishment" from the words. That is how the texture of the poem converges with everything else to bring love, comradeship, devotion through and to art. Lofty, but true. If it weren't true, then words and the nuances or significant differences them between them would not matter. Instead of reading a poem, we would just read bumper stickers or tea bag tags. My current one is, "Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it." Ha! That's perfect! It goes along with my point about poetry being more significant than life-less words, like the ones in advertisements. Anyway, the point is that poems move more deeply. They resonate more importantly that words used in ads, in slogan (Country First!) and even in things like new briefs from the AP wire. (I've got election on the brain, obviously.)