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Section VII

McNair to Hall, October 21, 1984

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Letter from McNair to Hall, October 21, 1984, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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 October 21, 1984

Dear Don,

Yesterday, I had a nightmare that I was asked
with no forewarning to make a speech at a
testimonial dinner for you. I still can’t wake up!

This is the absolute last straw for PSNH
(The Public Service Co.?). That society is like a
disease which must be stopped!

I would have liked to do that assignment
above all others right. Oh, well. I can be glad
about the main part of the day, at least:
That you got the dinner, and most of all,
that you read poems from the new manuscript
which prove once again you are entirely worthy,
apart from any banquet or award.

So the important things did happen,
in spite of all, and to hell with David Cote.

Love,

Wes

A note from McNair about this letter: David Cote is the president of the Poetry Society of New Hampshire, who turned to me at the banquet without any forewarning and asked me to make a speech on Don’s behalf.

McNair to Hall, October 12, 1984

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Letter from McNair to Hall, October 12, 1984, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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 October 12, 1984

Dear Don,

I guess you should wait until
the New Yorker is taking poems
again. I do feel obliged to get
one in that magazine sometime.

Look forward to seeing you
next Saturday. In fairness, the
Poetry Society seems to be going
all out for the event – as they
should do. I can think of nothing
so right as your being Poet
Laureate of New Hampshire!

Love,

Wes

 

McNair to Hall, September 29, 1984

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Letter from McNair to Hall, September 29, 1984, Page 1, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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 September 29, 1984

Dear Don,

Since I myself am not sure about the Perley
Hunt poem, please tell Joey not to send it at all.
I will return to it, maybe later on.

Joey is wierd [sic], but then that’s why we love him.

This Dartmouth job has been taking me away from
the poems I wanted to finish, but today I attempt
a return…. I look forward to your testimonial banquet.
I will be taking Eberhart to it. See you there!

Wes

A note from McNair about this letter:  The testimonial banquet is a celebration of Don as New Hampshire’s new poet laureate. Having met Richard Eberhart, the former poet laureate, at Dartmouth, I offered him a ride to the event…. In 1985, some months after my conversation in these excerpted letters, I returned to “Perley Hunt Walking,” retitling it, and writing it out as it needed to be, keeping Don’s earlier comments in mind.

Read Hunt Walking (published version)

Hall to McNair, September 27, 1984

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Letter from Hall to McNair, September 27, 1984, Colby College Special Collections

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 27 September 1984

Wes McNair
Hominy Pot Rd.
North Sutton, NH 03260

Dear Wes,

I hope you don’t write too many prose poems. If I love
any one thing most about your work, it is the way you use your
lines! I love your ear…

This is OK. I still think that the end sounds a little
bit as if you wanted to glory-off into space, and that comma
after “walking” is awkward, but of course it would be ambiguous
as all get-out without the comma… I still don’t love it.

I think there is no point in trying The New Yorker with
this one, because they have never been known to print a prose
poem. May Joey have your permission to skip them with this one,
and just try the others? As for your assumptions on Joey’s
pattern… Joey is not going to tell you nothing! You might
be right. But then again you might not be. Maybe he gets them
all rejected from Poetry Now, even before he tries Peter Davison?
Weird fellow, that fellow.

Don

 

McNair to Hall, September 24, 1984

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Letter from McNair to Hall, September 24, 1984, Page 1, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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 September 24, 1984
Dear Don,

Thanks for your letter. I’m glad you made
a submission to the New Yorker. I was about to send
copies of Seeing Cooch, What It Is, The Name, and
The Shooting. Should I now assume you have copies
of all? I do like your pattern of sending to the
New Yorker, then to The Atlantic, then to Poetry –
at least I think that’s the pattern – isn’t it? And
it’s so nice not to have to worry about rejections,
since I never see them!

As for the poem about Perley Hunt, I’ve wanted
almost from the beginning to make a prose poem
out of it – and this is what you’ve given me
the courage finally to do. I do like the rough,
unpolished language in it, the way it becomes
slack and suddenly taut. Maybe the prose
poem offered all along the only way to convey
this feeling. I hope so. Please let me know
what you think!

In the meantime, I thank you for

2/

the kind hopes you’ve expressed about teaching
at Dartmouth and writing time in between.
I will keep you posted about both as soon as
my schedule jells – and of course I’ll let
you know about job prospects.

Love,

Wes

Editorial note about this letter: Here is the revision of “Perley Hunt Walking” McNair enclosed:

PERLEY HUNT WALKING

Perley Hunt is off balance. Each day the part of him
that is no longer afraid to fall and the part of him that
is argue all the way to the mail. People who come out
of the post office see him walking, by almost falling
down on one side and on the other, holding aloft the
bony wing of his cane, and in this moment not one
thinks of his bad luck, or of the lucky life he might
have had. None thinks of any life beyond these hands
slowly passing the cane back and forth, this miracle
of walking on the undulant earth.

Hall to McNair, September 20, 1984

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Letter from Hall to McNair, September 20, 1984, Colby College Special Collections

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 20 September 1984

Wesley McNair
Hominy Pot Rd.
North Sutton, NH 03260

Dear Wes,

Joey just made a submission to the New Yorker.

We don’t like Perley Hunt quite so much as other recent things,
but will be happy to send it out. It seems thin for its length, to take
kind of a long way to say things…wonder about “alternate/other” as
redundancy… I wonder if I might like it better if it were speeded up
simply by being printed as one stanza. It seems a little slow to me.
Then the last two lines…I guess I really doubt them. The positive
side of “miracle” seems a little strained, maybe, and maybe as if you
were trying to drag a lyrical or glorified ending out of your hat…and
really if there were not so much space, and therefore delay, one might
come on the last couplet more as a combination of surprise and as of
matter of fact…a funny combination but I think it might be better.
If there were any other way to trim it down a bit, make it move more
quickly, maybe I would like it better. But I don’t dislike it a whole
lot either. I like the old fellow, and think he is well observed.

Good luck with Dartmouth. I hope you can continue to write and
use your time…and at the same time I hope you like it, and I hope they
like you – and that it may lead to some better form of employment in the
future.

Best as ever,

Don

 

McNair to Hall, September 16, 1984

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Letter from McNair to Hall, September 16, 1984, Page 1, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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 September 16, 1984

Dear Don,

I am now trying to get together a batch
of poems for Joey. Will you let me know
whether you think this one is ready for
the batch?

The past 2-3 weeks have been taken over
by course preparation for Dartmouth (I
start Monday). I’m hoping that by
spending so much time before the term starts,
I’ll be able to create room for writing.
I know I’ll have more time this term
than I would normally have at CSC.
Will soon know how much more!

Love,

Wes

PERLEY HUNT WALKING

Perley Hunt is off
balance. Each day

the part of him
that is no longer

afraid to fall, and the part
of him that is,

argue all the way
to the mail.

People who come out
of the postoffice see

him walking,
by almost falling down

on one side
and on the alternate

other, holding aloft
the bony wing

of his cane,
and in this moment

not one thinks
of his bad luck

or of the lucky life
he might have had.

None thinks of any life
beyond these hands

slowly passing a cane
back and forth,

this miracle of walking
on the undulant earth.

 

McNair to Hall, August 30, 1984

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Letter from McNair to Hall, August 30, 1984, Page 1, Milne Special Collections and Archives, University of New Hampshire

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 August 30, 1984

Dear Don,

How sloppy of me to write “passed” instead of “perished” in the
line I quoted from “Felix”!

Anyway – to set your mind at rest – I do not find “Felix” in any
way confusing except maybe for that section where he is recalled as
“water logged,” for the reasons I said that section might be confusing.
Perhaps I am at fault and not you. However that may be, the plot
is clear to me, and was before your explanation.

I still would like a different presentation of the narrator in
the poem, as I mentioned in the letter before last. Nonetheless, I
think the material you are working with there is rich – enough so
that I wouldn’t mind working on it myself!

Love, Wes

P.S. The Ragpicker is a good poem, Wendell Berry be damned!

 

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