Wesley McNair

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Dear Don,

It was good to be with you both last night,
and good to hear you read again – in voice
for all that music!

Please remind Joey to send McNair’s poems
to the New Yorker – and thanks for your help at
U/MD.

Love,

Wes

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Dear Don,

How silly of me not have said
where the dinner before your reading is
being held: The Gray House! We all
look forward to it!

I enclose a review from the VQR.
Do you know who reviews there? If
I knew, I’d be sure to pass by
his/her house late one night with
a dark little note tied to a rock.

What did I do to be so black
and blue?

Wes

PS – Since I don’t have a copy of
this, please send it back, though
I don’t know why I want it, come
to think of it – Lightness of ambition?

Undemanding? This guy is out for blood!

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How klutzy of me to call him
Dick Strong. I don’t forget his
face, his manner and his wonderful
NH accent, in spite of my other
confusion!

Your dinner, incidentally, will take
place at 6:00 pm on December
3 – and your reading, at 8:00 pm.
Carl and Elinore will be joining
the party, along with (I hope)
Dick Smart.

It should be a great evening!

Glad you enjoyed Italy!

Love,

Wes

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PS – Am working on a Jane reading
for next term, even though I’m
now off campus. One good way to
get acquainted with those New
Yorker poems I missed!

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Dear Don,

There will be a dinner before your reading on
Dec. 3 (details shortly), and I’d like to ask
Dick Strong to it, along with his wife. Can you
send me address or phone number?

Also: Anderson (Pat) wants bio stuff about
you for publicity. Just send to him, at CSC.

Also, I’m giving a reading at Dartmouth
on November 15, 8:00 pm, in the Wren
Room, and I’d like you and Jane to come –
[Written in margin:] Sanborn House
if you can work it into your no-doubt-
already-busy month.

Will you let me know if you can come,
in the note about Dick Strong?

Love,

Wes

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Dear Don,

Please send some biographical info
for publicity about your reading to Pat
Anderson at Colby-Sawyer when you can.

I’ve settled on a new fee, as you requested.

Love,

Wes

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.