22

                                    
                                     
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"I write because I would like to live forever."       
                                                    
"I have an intense desire to rescue those things    
that have touched me and place them somewhere   
for safekeeping, which is both impossible and   
utterly necessary."                                   
                                                  
"There is no guarantee that one will reach any     
of one's goals in this life.  But not to struggle   
toward those goals is to guarantee that they       
won't be achieved."                                
                                                 
"And never to forget beauty, however strange     
or difficult."                                    
                                                 
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The above are quotes from Reginald Shepherd's    
Why I Write revised.             
                                                
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rho00298                                           

Of 2 on Difficulty

  (Consideration: When under the sway of a strong belief/ 
                  it is hard to avoid being overly harsh.)
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  Thursday on his blog I read "On Difficulty in Poetry: a revision"
by Reginald Shepherd.  Friday evening after making a "Richard 
Wilbur Benign Obscurity" search at Google/ I chose to access a 
return from Poetry International III where I read "The Mystique 
of the Difficult Poem" by Steve Kowit.  When I finished working  
my way through that lengthy review/opinion essay, I reread Mr. 
Shepherd's lengthy essay.  This morning I coursed through   
each essay in search of what I deemed especially important.     
I decided the penultimate paragraph in Mr. Kowit's essay      
was. I decided the final paragraph in section 3 and the whole 
of section 4 in Mr. Shepherd's essay were.  This essay is a 
straight-on examination of the matter of difficulty.  While 
their central philosophies regarding poem-making are not  
compatible, both authors see value in difficulty, but Kowit's
acceptance of difficulty is preceded by his insistence on
comprehensibility.  I prefer to background their philosophies
and foreground the diverse poets and theorists each cites,
none of whom is against difficulty per se.  Why?: because
this fact supports my conviction poets and poetry theorists
need to curtail the I'm-better-than-you-are game.
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  See directory2007 in Catmap.
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Rho00002