Erin Rhodes

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November 7, 1977

Dear Don –

You are more than generous to offer
to send those stamps !

I would like very much to have
some 31¢ stamps (which, if I’m not
mistaken, are specially issued for air
mail to foreign countries – though I’d
appreciate your checking me on this).

I can’t write more now, as I’m
off to do errands in downtown Santiago
& Diane is waiting. I promise a fat
letter to you both soon.

in the meantime, please thank Jane for her letter.

And thank you again !

Yrs,

Wes

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Dear Don —

I was delighted to hear from you. Letters from the States
are special things here, and letters from you the more so.

Your indefatigable revisions of “Stone Walls” give me
strength for my own revisions. I agree with what Bly says
[Written in margin: in Contemporary Poets]…
about the “absolutely genuine” character of your best poems –
even though I bridle at his appreciation of that “Theory of
The Three brains” to your work. And I’m convinced that
“Stone Walls” will soon be one of your best poems, ranking
with, say, “Flies”. I would like very much to see it when
you think it’s finished. And do send “Traffic”, too.

I have been writing steadily and producing little, as is
my habit. Soon I will be translating contemporary Chilean
poets, since I have already enlisted the aid of two people
at the University for the enterprise. I will meet one of
these poets – a man named “Montes” – next week. I
want to include these translations in my book (they
will be in its last section) to extend the book’s “Americanness”.
The themes of the Chilean poems will parallel certain
themes in my poems.

2/

I enclose a recent production, “The Poetic License”, in the
hope that you and Jane might like it. I was going to send it to
Paris Review and then remembered that I can’t send a SASE from
here. Any suggestions about how to send poems to little magazines in
the states. Please let me know what you think about the poem,
in any event.

Glad to hear you have chosen a topic for your A.S.
lecture. It will be first-rate, I’m sure, one of the good things
I’m forced to miss by being here.

I’ve been invited to do a series of lectures on
center stage at an all – South American A.S. conference
in January. Americanists from Argentina, Brazil, Columbia,
Peru and Chile will be there. Will cover major themes in
American culture as expressed in the art and literature of
various periods. Needless to say, I’m pleased with the
invitation.

All is otherwise well, too. Diane and I are meeting
new people still and have begun to settle into the rituals
of life in Santiago. More about these subjects in my
next installment. Please hello to Jane. We miss you both.

Best,

Wes

3/

P.S. Forgot to mention that C.W. Truesdale rejected The Faces
of Americans in 1853. Said that my book placed among
the ones he wanted to publish, and that he responded especially
to the “farm poems” (there are only two). But, he said,
he couldn’t agree with my choice of the word “ponderous”
in the poem called “Memory of Kuhre”. That was all.
I am not so troubled by the rejection as by the reasons
for it.

Thus, I’m going for broke on the idea of the
“big book”, which I should have in another year.
I may call it The Poetic License. The title would
relate to my recent poem, to my attraction to “America” in the 19th century
in the book as a whole and to the nineteenth century.
(There will be 6-8 poems about the 19th century in it.)
Also, the title would relate to the nature of “poetic
license”, to the limitations of, the ironies involved
with, poetic license in my poetry. What do you think?

THE POETIC LICENSE

On the poetic license it is the nineteenth century.

A ship named Conventional Poetry
is just sinking on the horizon.

Nearby in a lifeboat
Form and Vision shake hands holding the strings
of ballons between their lips.

In the balloons are word of enthusiasm about sailing to America

the country where dawn is breaking and the Muse collapses
on the grave of Washington
naming the states.

Her balloon is so large it grazes the face of the farmer
plowing far off in the field
He goes right on waving,

songs come out of the mouths
of his wife and children

out of the mouths of pioneers watching the figure of Columbia
lift off the prairie and rise
half out of her robe. Oh Burgeoning Art

Oh Poetry Yet To Be, they say
pointing to her breasts

that part of the clouds
pointing to the clouds

pointing to my name inscribed across the West in longhand.

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Dear Don –

Rereading your poem Stone Walls in Chile late at night
makes me appreciate it more than I ever have before –
the distance has given it more edge, perhaps. I like
so much the way you convey that attraction to the past,
how the narrator recalls first the old faces, then the
landscape of the Kearsarge arch itself, juxtaposing that
memory/dream of the past with the dreams he had then
of the future, and finally bringing past and present
together in that wonderfully joyful and yet sad sound
Section 4, in which he recalls the “fall” of his
youth as he lives the “fall” of his manhood. (Section 4
is, well, masterful, esp. the way it expresses
that essential “connection” between the n’s past
and present through the landscape.)

(New pen) Perhaps it is because I identify
with the n’s attraction to the past, and with his
attempt to correct that past (its people, its

2/

landscape, its heretofore unreclaimed self), that I do not so much like
Section 7, which seems to me to take the poem beyond its proper
concerns oops bounds. I think I know what you are trying to do
in that section, but it feels public – histrionic – and seems
to me to violate the personal and more strictly autobiographical
movement of the poem.

The poem is, to my mind, an awfully good one, presenting
a speaker who revives his ancestors and his region from
the death of the past, and through that experience awakens
fully alive in the present, where he sees himself moving
toward another death, “through the woods…to the village” of his
own “nightfall”. Yet there is finally no sadness about his
awakening because the cycle of his life, which he dreams
returning to the place of “stone walls”, as “connected”
with the cycles of other lives, and with the larger – much
larger – cycle of the region itself. (Yes, I do understand
that Section 7 contributes to the readers sense of what
I’ve just called the “larger cycle of the region”, but I
still wonder about it…)

All of the above is, of course, offered in a take–it–
or–leave–it–you–know–your–own–poem–better–than–I
basis.

Chile is hard to describe at this point since we

3/

haven’t been here long enough to assimilate it. I
have yet to meet with the “literary club” of the
North America Institute here, and have only just met a man who
will soon introduce me to poets, including Nicanor Parra,
who is, by the way, alive and well. My teaching assignment goes
swimmingly: graduate students here are bright and very
committed to American Studies. My campus is beautiful –
medieval/monastic architecture, several green, flowering
courtyards.

We assumed there would be a DINA (secret police)
officer on every corner of the Santiago streets, but not so –
In fact, the word here and in Washington is that DINA has
been disbanded. We read in the Santiago press that
Carter and Pinochet (you wondered about the pronunciation
of that name – it’s French, though the Spanish pronounce
it PEÉ NOH CHAYT) have been conferring in
Washington – Pinochet having been invited to the
White House to discuss with others the terms of
the Panama Canal treaty. Do you read the same?
I have been asked to do a series of lectures
(4) at the Cath. U. of Valparaiso, so will soon
see more of the academic network here – In November,

4/

will be lecturing at the U. of Conception.

Maybe these and other activities will tell me more about
social/ political realities here – about such things, my understanding is
limited. Everywhere there are evidences of the Allende period,
just passed ended: the boards over the windows of the executive
mansion, which was bombed by the military; the slogans
that show through the whitewash on city buildings – and the
conversations among the professors of the Catolica (most
of whom are pro-Junta) about the “Communist experiment”
that failed. But much more remains to be seen and learned.

So, more later. In envy you your up-coming
season in NH; would love to be with you, kicking
the leaves, or whatever. Oh well, at least we will not
have a fuel bill here. We think about you both and
would love to hear from you. Til then (as you once
said to me) “Keep writin’ those poems”!

Warmest thoughts & regards,

Wes

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Don & Jane –

Can I be forgiven a few
extra days with your poems?

Honestly, what with fixing
up the house for renters,
preparing the calendar ^etc. for the
Am. Studies program and making
arrangements for departure
(this last was endless), I
just haven’t had time to give
the things you kindly left in
my care the audience they need
and deserve –

2/

I promise proper attention to
all writings when I get to Chile.
You will hear from me soon –about
that and about our adventures
and misadventures.

Thanks for your tolerance.
We will miss you both but will
close the distance soon via
correspondence –

Affectionately,

Wes

P.S. Superficially speaking, I feel
very positive about the book, and
Don, you know something of what
I feel anyway about Stone walls.
But superficial speaking isn’t good enough. More soon!

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Dear Don –

Thanks for agreeing to be one of the R. Porter
lecturers. I don’t think a title is necessary. Thank you
especially for your insistence on doing the thing gratis.
Such generosity is like you, but I’m still surprised
and touched. There are three other lecturers: Malcolm
Cochran (Carl’s son), who will talk about his ceramic
sculpture titled “Rufus Porter” … October 6; Peter Benes,
who will speak on early American sandstone iconography…
March 16; and Betsy Tumis, to lecture about a
book she is doing on Hal Chase, the baseball great
and one of the fixers of the World Series, 1919.

Yes, I did know about the Christ incident.
Shortly after it happened, I received a call from Owen
Lee of the Bureau of Educational and Culture Affairs
in the State Dep’t. Lee explained that the NY Times
article was “substantially correct” but asked me
to note that there was no trouble in Chile for Christ –
that the trouble was all in the U.S. According

2/

to reports made to the BECA by both Christ and Loren
Davidson (a recent Fulbrighter at The Catholic University),
professors in Chile are free to teach, congregate and travel
as they please. I just received a call from Davidson during
which he underscored the above – will soon get a call
from Christ himself (Owen Lee is setting up the latter).

My own position in all this is the same as
that of The BECA’s – ie, that the Fulbright – Hays
exchanges are “people–to–people” in nature, not
gov’t–to–gov’t. We have Fulbrighters in most of the
military–run gov’ts of South America (only 2
S. Am. Countries have democracies), and Fulbrighters in
other countries which violate Carter’s human rights
credo (Haiti? Russia?). Should Fulbrights
become politicized, surely all of these folks, and
many others as well, would all be asked to return home.

But I’ve probably been on this subject with you
before… Thanks for your concern in all this.

Incidentally, I’m hoping most fervently that

3/

I can get a copy of Bly’s Neruda translations
before I leave. (I’ll return yours soon.) As Jane
may have told you, I was to do some translations
by contemporary Chilean poets (with help from
perhaps one of the teachers at the University) and
would like to have examples of good translations
nearby…or the N. Tarn book would be nice, if I can find it.

I will, of course, keep you in touch with what
I’m doing in Chile. Needless to say, I hope to
return with a finished book…capped off, as Jane’s
probably will be, with translations. I am high about
the way in which the book might extend its
“Americanness” with poems from S. Am.

I hope Jane showed you the LAST version
of my “Father” poem. If she did, I also hope you
liked it. Your “Skeleton in Armor” poem reminds me somewhat
of certain poems I’ve done of elementary school. Its
that why you sent it? I like it, but am still
so swept up in “Flies”, nothing else answers half

4/

as well. God, what a poem! I’m taking it with me
to Chile, along with The Alligator Bride. And do
you happen to have a spare copy of A Roof of Tiger Lilies?
I think that’s as good a book as you’ve ever done, and
I’d like to have it along with me, too.

But if you don’t OK. It’s probably my
compulsion that I have to have everything in my
suitcases before I go.

Thanks again for agreeing to “lecture” –
so inexpensively. I’m only sorry I won’t get
to hear you.

yrs,

Wes

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Dear Don,

During the next academic year, the American Studies program
at Colby-Sawyer will sponsor a small lecture series called “The
Rufus Porter Lectures in American Studies”. The students and faculty
connected with the program have chosen you as one of the lecturers
in that series. Given your developing repertoire of anecdotes about
nineteenth-century American literary figures, we would very much
like you to share some of your favorite such anecdotes with our
American studies majors and other interested members of the CSC
community. (The audience will be relatively small — probably 25-40
people.)

The honorarium for each of the Rufus Porter Lectures is $75.00- –
not enough, I know, for your services, but as much as our small
program budget will allow us to pay. Should you elect to participate
in the series, we would like you to give your lecture on November
10, at 8:00 PM in James House.

I’d appreciate your letting me know as soon as possible
whether you’re interested in being one of our lecturers. Needless
to say, we’d feel honored if you’d come.

Yours,

Wes

(Co-ordinator of American Studies)

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Dear Donald –

You will forgive my absent-mindedness,
but I can’t seem to recall whether I sent
the letter I wrote to you about “Flies”, and I
want to be sure you know how much I like
the poem. For me, “Flies” is one of the
best poems you have ever written, which
is saying plenty. I’m just stunned
by it.

As I said in my first letter (did it
ever get to you?), somewhere, Kate Wells
is smiling.

Thanks so much for sending it.
You have made my week.

Wes

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Dear Donald –

Your poem “Flies” is an absolute
triumph.

I like it better than anything you
have done recently. It ranks with
the very best you ever written.

Somewhere Kate is smiling.

Thanks for sending it.

Wes