Getting Acquainted

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I like the poems very much. Amazing
you’re so close. I look forward
to a time we can get together &
talk about them & so on.

Don Hall

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Don-

How long can a ball-point pen last when one is on the
couch writing upside-down? Perhaps as long as this letter
does.

Have been in touch with Betsy Tunis (The baseball
researcher) & she says she will be ringing you soon. Be prepared.

Also, the publishing house in Peterboro is WILLIAM BAUGHAN.
They do art books (one on Barry Faulkner recently) &
[Written in margin: IN NOAH’S WAKE]
poetry books (cfs Allen Block). Stephen Greene, about which
we talked earlier, seems limited to recipe books &
unpredictable “specialties” —

Will stop before my pen does —

Yrs,

Wes

PS. Was that you I saw in The Blackwater Gazette?
My, what big eyes you have! Merry Christmas
to you both-

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Don-

Sorry to have fouled up the spelling
of the Peterborough publisher. The name,
legibly this time (I hope) is

WILLIAM L. BAUHAN

I have just received the illustrations
done for The Faces of Americans in 1853
& would like very much to discuss them
with you. I’m not at all sure they’re
right. Will you be around during the holidays?

Wes

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Don

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Dear Don and Jane,

I have read the poems which I took with me after my last visit,
and I like them very much. Their language and form are so natural–
accessible and profound all at once. “Names of Horses”: the title
is wonderful, as is the subject of the poem. Its long, hymn-like
lines are most appealing, also its sad music. I especially like
the last line–knockout, the way those “names”work [sic]. “Kicking the
Leaves”: again that conversational speaker who is all the time
forming a poem. The gesture at the center of the poem is (becomes)
beautifully complex. The very best poems in the group are,
to my mind, “The Black Faced Sheep” (beautiful in its composition
alone) and “Flies”. But then, it’s an awfully strong group. Honestly,
these are some of the best poems I’ve read in a long time.

Jane, you mentioned that I should send along poems for
Green House. I am sending two, neither of which should be used
until I receive word one way or the other from magazines to which
they’ve been sent. The “Rufus Porter” poem has been sent to San Hose
Studies, and the “Elinore Quelch” piece, which you may remember
from my book, has been sent to The American Poetry Review. I have
others, but they are either about to be published or unfinished.
No doubt at least one of the above mentioned will bounce. Please let
me know what you think of them (I enclose “E.Q.”, in the event you
need to review it); I’ll let you know as soon as I hear from
the mags above.

Don, you have me thinking about a “book-book”. Counting up
poems, I figure I have around 40 pages of text at this point,
and I feel that I might well have the thing written within the next
one or two years. It would be a book of reminiscences, like The Faces
of Americans, only more varied. My search through available stuff
has resulted in a find of four poems not included in The Faces.

You both may not realize that the confidence you expressed
in my poems last week saved my life. With scarcely anyone to talk to about
my writing, I had become consumed with self-doubt. Now, once again,
I believe….

Thanks so much for your kind words.

Yrs,

Wes

PS- My typist made a handful of typing errors
which changed certain poems in that book
for the worse– I will soon send you a revised copy
with the “Springfield Vt” poem currently in progress–

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Wes McNair
Sutton
New Hampshire 03260

Dear Wes,

Many thanks for that letter. I’m delighted that you like the
poems. The minute I saw how good your poems were, I wanted you to like
my poems! I look forward to showing you more.

If you want to take a chance and wait to do a book-book, I will
only applaud your courage! That is, I know perfectly well – and you do
too – that a lot of bad books get published, and a number of good books
go unpublished, at least for quite a while – and that quality does not
guarantee acceptance, etc. But I am very very high on your poems, and
I could for instance recommend them very very highly to Harper & Row, and
that might help. I should say though that I have given “very very high
recommendation” to Harper & Row in the past, and I probably have, at
that level, I’m probably only batting about 400. Or less [handwritten].

I’m happy – we’re happy – if our admiration for your poems has
felt good to you. No, it doesn’t surprise me. I was hoping it would
help. It’s so rare that one can feel that way, that one can really look
a man in the eyes and express that kind of confidence – it’s a delight to
be able to do it.

Go ahead and be consumed with self-doubt. Some day you will hear
me express “confidence” in somebody you think is absolutely terrible. Or
whatever. That is, confidence is probably not even a useful quality among
poets! But it sure does feel good, when you feel it from time to time,
doesn’t it? Your letter has cheered me up about those poems. I was a
little bit down on some of them, for one reason or another – possibly sun
spots or the full moon!

We look forward to the revised copy of the manuscript, heaven knows.
Drop in when you’re over this way.

Best as ever,

Don

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Your decision sounds fine. We want
to see any- & everything new, when it’s
seeable, of course. And remember, you’re
going to send me (or bring me) another mss.
When you write again, could you let me
have your telephone number?

Best,

Don

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Dear Don –

I’m so surprised and pleased at the same time,
I could spit! Right out of the blue, that call
from Stephen Bloom! I’m awfully grateful
you thought of me as a poet for Marietta
College. Can’t think how to tell you what that
means to me, except to say that I’m now
even higher than before ! Is there really a
world down there or did I only imagine it?

Thanks so very much.

Yrs,

Wes

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29 Jan 77

I’m over at Goddard in Vermont for a
few days. Good for Marietta, to have
the sense to follow my advice. It
will be good to see you when you get
back. Thanks for the mss. When
do you go there?

Don

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Don-

Am using this awful stationary
to tell you that (1) everything
at Marietta C. went extraordinarily
well (about which, more later) and that
(2) I have talked folks here into
a Donald Hall reading for either
April 5 or April 11 –
depending on your druthers.
Payment for the reading is
$800 – some class visitations –
two, perhaps- would be involved.
Can you let me know

if this last seems OK.

yrs,

Wes

P.S. – Our dinner for you &
Jane (& others) seems right
for two weeks from now. I’ll
give you a date soon – Hope
all is well with you both.

PPS – Just talked to Carl,
who says April 11 would be
the best date for the reading,
but suit yourself.

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Wes McNair
Colby-Sawyer College
New London, N.H. 03257

Dear Wes,

I’m writing you back to the address on the stationery, because the
first part of it anyway is Colby-Sawyer business.

I’ll be delighted to read on April 11th. I think the 5th would have
been OK too, but if Carl prefers the 11th, let’s just make it the 11th.
Any and all class visitations will be just fine. also. [sic] Sometimes it seems
best to have class visitations after the lecture rather than before, so
that kids may have some questions to ask. I’d be happy to come up Tuesday
morning the 12th. (Tuesday afternoon I’ll be going up to Dartmouth to give
a lecture.) For that matter, I could come back on Wednesday if it were
better.

The pay is excellent. Thank you for all this.

Two weeks from now sounds fine for dinner. My daughter will be with
us until the morning of March 16th, so maybe it will be better to have it
a St.Patrick’s Day dinner or shortly thereafter – which would be actually
two weeks from when you wrote the letter, I guess. But you will telephone
anyway. [Handwritten in margin: Actually not the 17th/ 18? 19?]

I look forward to hearing about Marietta. I’m delighted that it
went extraordinarily well. Delighted; I’m not surprised! I’ve been reading
the manuscript over, by the way – the new or retyped manuscript which you
sent me. And there’s no question: things hold up. Have you heard anything
from New Rivers?

Jane is going through the struggle of finishing a manuscript right now,
to send out to people. Publishers, that is. Lots of revisions going on
all over this house.

Best as ever, and many thanks,

Don

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Don –

Thanks for your letter.
Enclosed are two programs done for
Sladen Lectureships of the past. Can you
furnish us with a picture & bio information
suitable for this kind of format ?

April 11 seems right to all. The
reading will take place in the evening.
Further details later (re: classes, etc.).

Wes

P.S. News of dinner to follow!

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Many apologies for shifting
the date, but it turns out
that this weekend is
impossible for a dinner.

I am working hard for
April 2 at this point, so
if that’s out, please let me
know soon.

Thanks, Don, for the picture
& materials. Oh, Jane:
Guess what ? Tom Wayman’s
“Kitchen Poem” has turned up
in the Fall ’76 Paris Review –
Did you see it? I thought your
last issue of Green House was
strong. Thanks for sending it.

Wes

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Just got your note today,
Tuesday. Will the picture
I sent do? It’s not very
dignified! I have others, I
think. // Also, can you make
up a ¶ from the materials
I sent? Check it with me
if you like. // We leave Sunday
20th – Thurs 24th.

Best,

Don

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2 April is good now – but who knows
when the phone will ring? We look
forward to seeing you. We’re gone
20-24 March.

Best,

Don

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Dear Don,

April 2 is now firm. Please
come –- you and Jane –- at 7:00.

I’m sending you — somewhat mangled —
copy for the brochure which our PI
office is having printed re: your visit at
CSC. Please note time of reading
and times of classroom appearances.
One of us in the English Dep’t will
no doubt be available to steer you
toward the right places.

Am looking forward to both
events. If you have questions –- well,
the 2nd comes before the 11th. Or
call me –-

Wes

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Don –

I called the printer immediately after you
called me and got the program revised.
The second-to-last sentence has been changed,
and one of the class visits has been
cancelled – ie, the visit to Creative Writing
on Tuesday. (Carl hoped you could share
some of your anecdotes of 19th century
American literary figures with the
Major American Writers class … but if
you have other plans, I’m sure he
wouldn’t mind.) After the reading,
you may be asked to the home of
someone in the English Dep’t for drinks
and conversation. I hope that’s OK.

2/

Many thanks for calling right back –
If there are still more questions, please
let me know. And if you have further
thoughts about program revisions,
you have until Wednesday to notify
me. Feel free.

Map for April 2 is enclosed.
Good luck! We are anxious to
see you both –

Wes

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Dear Wes – Good map. We’re looking forward to
Saturday. // You know, I’m happy to do a visit
with creative writers, if we can find a time.
I want to do my bit! See if you can’t find a
time. (It doesn’t have to have to be printed on the
program; we can just do it.) Be delighted to
talk anecdotes or anything and Am. Writer class. Party
after reading is fine. I taught yesterday for
the first time in 2 years. Very strange! (Dartmouth
started.)

Best,

Don

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Donald —

Lord, that reading was wonderful! I woke up at
5:30 this morning (an unusual hour for me)
still high on it. I’d like to see that new long poem sometime.
Certain resonant images from it keep coming back
Into my mind — from part four (which I’ve already
mentioned), or from the section about the store
(with its Exxon sign and white clapboards- –
excellent, that tension!). As I told you, I often
have trouble hearing/seeing poems at readings,
and with that poem I need more time…

But thanks for coming to Colby to read your poems.
It was a special night — with the ultimate in
visual aids: Mt. Kearsage itself, just down the
road.

I’m awfully glad you are coming to Colby next year.
I hope you both feel as good to be in the
neighborhood as we all feel having you here.

Wes

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[Postmarked April 14, 1977]

Thank you for
Monday night, Wes.
It was a fine thing
for me. I’m grateful
to you for working it out.

Don

Best to Diane.

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Dear Wes–

Thanks for your letter. It makes
me feel very good. I was a little
worried about the slurred words I
had to repeat! I guess I shouldn’t
worry. I read the new one again this
morning at Mt. Holyoke, with a few
changes since last Monday. I’m
feeling good about it.
Now I’ve got eight readings coming
up. South Carolina, Maryland, Alabama,
Oklahoma. I look forward to seeing
you & Diane when things settle down a little.

I’m hoping you don’t go to Chile so we
can keep you around. But if you go, you’ll
come back – & maybe it will be good for
your poems to have such a change of
scene. I learned so much about the
U.S. by going away from it for a while.

As so as soon as I’m ready to
show that poem to anybody, I’ll show
it to you.

Best,

Don

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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

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Dear Wes,

Yes, it’s good, and I want to
put it in the winter issue! Thank
you. (How many more do you have
in your drawer?)

We enjoyed our evening with
you.

Jane

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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 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 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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Wes McNair
No. Sutton
New Hampshire

Dear Wes,

Thanks for the good letter, written July 10th (it couldn’t have
been written July 10th!, but that’s what it seems to say).

I’m delighted to do the lecture. I will I think talk about the
nature of American nationality, and the identity of the national
literature – which sounds incredibly pompous; but I will spice it up
with a lot of jokes!

Thanks again for writing about the Christ incident. I am interested
that everyone was so sensitive about it. I can see why. Anyway, I think
if I were you I would go there also, although the morals of it would give
me pause – as I’m sure it gives you pause. But you cannot investigate
anything by staying behind in North Sutton. And it is possible that if
you go there, and find out what is going on, you can do something for the
people, not just for the government. I don’t really believe in the people-
to-people – I mean, I think that’s rhetoric. The Fulbright is a U S gov-
ernment grant, and people in the various countries know it. And there
are, yes, worser places even than Chile! I don’t think Russia.
[Written in margin: I mean I don’t think there are F’s.] But lots
of weird places. Our government criticized politicized the Fulbrights originally,
by denying them to people with leftwing connections. By denying them to
Americans with leftwing connections, I mean. There is no way to do any-
thing in the modern world without tarnishing yourself with something or
other. You cannot drive on the highways, without accepting something
from Meldrim Thompson. I’m serious!

Have you read – do you own – the Hardie St.Martin anthology from Harper
and Row called Roots and Wings? It’s superb. It is Spanish poetry, not
Latin American, but it has some of the best translations going. Very few
poor ones. By a whole lot of different translators, including Bly and Merwin
and Phil Levine, some of the best. I have a couple of translations in there
myself, but I don’t put myself in that company. It is available in paper-
back now, but it’s a pretty expensive paperback. I would really recommend
it.

Isn’t the blind Bly Neruda easily available? From Beacon? I mean, Carlton
won’t have it in New London, I know. But you can get it mailed up to you from
Boston I’m sure. There’s a wonderful book store in Cambridge, the Grolier,
which will mail things to me. In case you don’t happen to have a place that
will do it, would you like that name and address? It is Louisa Salano, Grolier
Book Shop, 6 Pliympton St., Cambridge, MA. If you tell her I suggested that you
write her, I think she will mail you stuff without having to bite the money.

I will ask Jane to show me the last version of the “Father” poem.
Seriously, I keep so separate from Green House, I don’t know what’s going
to be in it until I read the print edition. It’s better this way, knowing
my propensity toward sticking my nose into everything!

I didn’t send you the “Journeys Through Bookland” because I thought
it sounded like any of your poems. I didn’t think of that. I just happened
to have a copy of it, and it is brand new. I wonder what you think of “Stone
Walls”… I look forward to hearing about that. Yes, I do have a copy of
Tiger Lilies to give you and I’m delighted to give you a copy. I like that
one also.

I’m sorry you won’t be there for the lecture also. Well, not so much
that you won’t be there for the lecture, just that you won’t be there. But
we look forward to you coming back – and I’m absolutely fascinated to hear
about everything in Chile. Especially about the poets. Well, the poets
and the opposition – and for the most part poets will be in the opposition.

Best to you both, from us both,

Don

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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 –

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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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.

[Click image to view]

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

[Click image to view]

Dear Don & Jane –-

I am writing once again in haste. Your letter arrived yesterday,
catching us in the middle of preparations for a trip south, to
Concepcion. Diane, the kids & I are going there for a week -– I am
to do four “American” lectures at the U. Concepcion. All of our
expenses are being covered by the University & by the Fulbright
Commission; thus, our first extensive travel in Chile will be free.

But I wanted to get a few words off to you both before
going. First, to tell you I’m awfully glad to have those 31 ¢
stamps. I don’t really need so many (what faith you have in my
output!), but the surplus is the most wonderful luxury
for me, without stamps only a day ago. I also wanted to
let you know about a reading on Thurs. night (Thanksgiving)
by N. Parra of his new book Sermons Y Prédicas
de [sic] Cristo de Elqui. I enclose an article from Santiago’s
major newspaper, El Mercurio, Nov. 19, announcing the
reading and explaining that Parra has taken up residence
in Isla Negra, following the example of Neruda.

Oh – forgot to mention that Diane & I went to the reading
with friends and enjoyed it in spite of our very limited
Spanish (we are now taking lessons).

The enclosed article points out that Artifacts, Parra’s
last book of poems (not a book, really, but a pack of
poems, which resembled playing cards, in a box)
contained many verses that were anti-Allende. Our
friends concur with that assessment. In one passage
of Sermons Y Prédicas, by the way, Parra agrees that there
are violations of human rights in Chile, now there is
an inequitable distribution of wealth. Then he asks, in
what other country of the world are these things not true?
(Since he is speaking through the persona of Cristo de Elqui,
a preacher of Santiago in the 1930’s, he is technically

2/

referring to the dictatorship and the social conditions of the 1930s
in the passage; actually, of course, he is referring to the present.

So Parra is very much alive – and not, perhaps,
as disturbed about being in Chile as folks might think.
By the way, it’s my opinion, after having been here 3 months,
that the press in the U.S. has caricatured conditions here –
It seems to me that Allende was not as pure, and that
the Junta is not as monstrous, as we have been led to
believe. I will write more about this when I have time,
that which there is little of at present.

I promise at last a card from Concepcion
and a ^longer letter not long after I return.

Thanks once again for the stamps. Hope all
is well at Eagle Pond Farm!

Wes

[Click image to view]

Jane and I loved getting your long letter. Good for you on the
translations. Your arrangement sounds foolproof – or maybe it is failsafe.
Miriam Diez has translated Adrienne… In the same mail as your letter,
I had a long letter from Adrienne. L’hasard objectif.

Will you come back next summer? When? We miss you.

You asked me if anybody has translated poems from “Otras Poemas.”
By whom? Is that Parra? Not that I know of – but then, I wouldn’t know.
When did the book come out? Denise Levertov ought to know. You could write
her at Tufts/Medford/Massachusetts.

Christmas Moon must be Eeldritch, under those conditions. I’ve been
in England for Christmas, when the cabbages were still growing in the back
yards – but at least the sun knew enough not to show up.

Fried brains for New Year’s Eve. Sounds good. That fish-monger mongs
more than fish. I like that T-shirt…

Wes, you mention that you would like to see the revised “Stone Walls”
and then say “as I’d very much like to talk about some of your prose poems.”
But “Stone Walls” has no prose in it. Are you thinking of “Flies”? I will
send either, happily. Let me know.

Don

[Click image to view]

Dear Wes,

Here’s de Stonewall.

Well, we saw some palm trees & flowery shrubs
& felt some warm rain. It was ok – but I love
this eight foot snowpile we live in.

Very busy, readings + deadlines. Wonderful
review of Remembering Poets in next Sunday’s Times
Book Review. Donald Davie.

Good news on the Parra scene. We look
forward to the translations. Let them come.

Will you return in July? When?

Got to get to work.

Best,

Don

[Click image to view]

Dear Don –

You asked me to send you some of my translations of N. Parra.
I have by now translated several of his poems. But I am
sending you only the three which I wish to include in my
first volume of poetry. As I may have explained, the
thing will conclude with fifteen or so pages of contemporary
Chilean poetry in translation. I will choose the poems by a
fairly arbitrary set of criteria, insisting that they be
free verse poems and that they further themes in the
“book proper”. For the Parra translations, there’s still another
prerequisite: they must be sufficiently different from the
Williams (or Wright or whomever) versions to stand
on their own. Having seen the Williams translations of
“Stains on the Wall” and “The Beggar”, I am not worried
about publishing my renditions : They are in their way
quite different – and, I am convinced, better – translations.
I have not seen what may have been done earlier with
“The Man”, but will know as soon as a friend in Cambridge
sends me the two NEW DIRECTIONS Parra books –
Poems and Antipoems and Emergency Poems. “The Man”

2/

is a simpler poem in its language, and therefore difficult
to screw up. But Williams, Parra’s principal translator,
has gone so far wrong with other poems, it’s not hard
to imagine that he’s done it again with “The Man”.

I have sent you two versions of “Stains on the Wall” –
mine and Williams’ – so you can see how we differ
and why I think he’s on the wrong track…later, I
may send you Parra’s “Self Portrait”, which I may include
in my book, and which I’ve just finished translating.
I will certainly send you my translations of poems by
Gonzalo Rojas, which I will include, and which
I’m working on now.

Please let me know what you think. Also what you
think of “Memory of North Sutton”. I don’t know
when I’ve had so many poems underway in
my notebooks – but progress is, as usual slow. I have
some I think are ready, but I want to be sure
before you see them. Others sit and sulk on the page.
The good news is that I seem to have most of my
part of the book written. When it’s done, you and
Jane will be the first to see it, a dubious distinction,

3/

perhaps, but the best I can offer right now.

We will be home, to answer your recent question,
at the end of August – a bit late, but I’ve been asked
by the Fulbright Commission to stay on for a month
to lecture at a variety of universities in South America –
this is a result of a week-long all-South American
conference on American civilization for which I did all
the lectures. It went well, better than I had expected,
and various participants invited me to their home
institutions. In April, Diane and I will be traveling
to the South of Chile; sometime later, we’ll go to
the North. Now, I’m on vacation (until March
15) and am using the time to write and put together
a course called “The City and the Town in American
Culture”. It will include lots of 20th Century
literature and art.

Forgot to mention that the most serious
potential obstacle to my home-coming was an
offer from the U. of Concepcion (where Meriam
Diaz is – a wonderful place, whose campus looks
like Berkeley’s) to stay on indefinitely as a full

4/

professor of American civilization. For a variety of reasons,
including job security at home, I turned the offer down,
but that was a difficult decision.

So it’s definite for late August. Perhaps you would
have time for a reunion near that time? Diane and I
would like that.

Please say hello to Jane for me. And please
pass on the enclosed to her. Tell her I got my
Green House and was very pleasantly surprised to find
my name on its cover – a first for me. Also please
convey how pleased I was to hear that Louis Simpson
liked “The Last Peaceable Kingdom”.

Our best to you both,

Wes

P.S. I liked “Stone Walls”, and I will enjoy teaching
it. How different it was from the last version! Are
you finished with it? I am strongly in favor of
the revisions you’ve made. It’s a remarkable poem, I think.

About “The Poetic License”; I’ve decided to
keep the last line, at least for now, since I still

5/

like the way it completes the image of a “poetic license”
and I like the way it places the burden of all that
American mythology upon the poet who would write about
America today – this in spite of his apparent distance
from the mythology – his playing with it, joking about
it, etc. –I.e., to have a poetic license, he must
find a way of dealing with the poetic license
to which the poem earlier refers.

But you’ve made me wary of my “justifications”.
I can only hope I’m right.

Muchos Saludos !

THE BEGGAR

It is not possible to live in the city
Without having an official function:
The police enforce this law.

Some are soldiers
Who spill their blood for the country
(This goes between quotation marks)

Others are astute merchants
Who take away a gram
Or two or three from each kilo of plums.

And those further on are priests
Who pass each other with a book in hand.

Each one knows his business.
And what do you think mine is?

To sing
To all the closed windows

Hoping they will open
And
drop
me
a coin.

–Nicanor Parra

A MAN

The mother of a man is gravely ill
He leaves to look for the Doctor
He cries
In the street he sees his wife with another man
They are walking hand in hand
He follows at a short distance
From tree to tree
He cries
Now he meets a friend from his youth
It’s been years since we’ve seen each other!
The go into a bar
They talk, they laugh
The man leaves to urinate on the patio
He sees a young girl
It is night
She is washing dishes
The man approaches the young woman
He takes her by the wrist
They dance waltzes
Together they go into the street
They laugh
There is an accident
The girl has lost consciousness
The man goes to find a telephone
He cries
He reaches a house with lights
He asks for a telephone
Someone recognizes him
Stay to eat, man
No
Where is the telephone
Eat, man, eat
Afterward you can go
He sits down to eat
He drinks like a condemned man
He laughs
They make him recite
He recites
He falls asleep under a desk

–Nicanor Parra

MILLER WILLIAMS VERSION OF STAINS ON THE WALL

1 Before the night falls completely on us
2 Let’s study the stains on the wall:
3 Some appear to be plants
4 Others look like mythological animals.

5 Hippogrifos,
6 dragons,
7 salamanders.

8 But the most extraordinary of all
9 Are the ones that seem to be atomic explosions

10 In the cinematography of the wall
11 The soul sees what the body does not:
12 Kneeling men
13 Mothers with creatures in their arms
14 Statues on horseback
15 Priests lifting the host
16 Genitalia coming together

17 But the most mysterious of all
18 Beyond a doubt
19 Are the ones that seem to be atomic explosions.

Notes

1&2 : Parra speaks of night in this stanza – but also of the darkness of the holocaust.
That point emerges somehow out of the seriousness and the formality of the speaker’s invitation
to “study”. Williams’ first line has an awkwardness that results from a literal translation.
His second line – “Let’s, etc.” – is informal, almost suggests “fun”. If it establishes any
tone at all, it’s a tone of “flipness” – as if the antipoet is a man who is flip, insouciant.
That sort of tone, by the way, permeates Williams’ book. Actually, Parra’s tones are many,
and it’s vitally important to get them straight, esp. since so much of the poetry comes out of
the tone.

3 “appear to be” : suggests too much of a distance between the stain and its correspondent.

5 “Horses” will do, since the category of “mythological animals” has already been established.
“Hyppogrifos” is too strained a reference.

5 – 7 Doing away with the commas helps the reader to better see the animals on the “field” of
the wall. (I take liberty with the original here.)

8 “extraordinary” should be “mysterious” – translation is careless, esp. since “mysterious”
conveys the strangeness of the investigation which we are invited to make. “Extraordinary”
belongs at the end of the poem – in its last line – where Parra originally put it, the better
to conclude our investigation. Of course Williams places “mysterious” in that line.

9 “seem to be” : Both here and in the last line; this phase makes the likeness more
conditional than it is supposed to be.

10 – 15 This stanza includes roles, activities, images which connote the ongoing processes,
the stability of civilization. Strangely, these things can also suggest the terror
of a civilization coming apart – like some section of Picasso’s Guernica. I sense
in his mechanical, also literal rendering of these lines, Williams’ unawareness
of the above. Note also his inappropriate translation of lines 13 and 14 :
“statues on horseback” belies a carelessness for which there is simply no excuse.

16 In Parra’s poem this line appears on its own, with space above and below itself- It seems
to me that Parra singles it out in this way to give a new connotation to the
“atomic explosions” of the poem’s conclusion. They become an awful inverted
orgasm, one which blows man, woman and the created world to pieces. “Genitalia” ?
Literal. Mechanical.

Since the resonances of this poem are subtle, it requires a painstaking
translation. The wrong word or phrase can ruin the whole thing. Obviously, there’s
more than that wrong with Williams’ rendition. Even punctuation can make a
great difference in a poem like this. And Williams is very sloppy about punctuation.

STAINS ON THE WALL

Before the darkness descends
We will study the stains on the wall.
Some look like plants
Others resemble mythological animals:

Horses
dragons
salamanders

But the most mysterious of all
Are the ones which look like atomic explosions.

In the cinematography of the wall
The soul sees what the body does not:
Men on their knees
Mothers with babies in their arms
Equestrian monuments
Priests offering the body of Christ:

Genital organs coming together.

But the most extraordinary of all
Are without a doubt
The ones that look like atomic explosions.

–Nicanor Parra

MEMORY OF NORTH SUTTON  [Wesley McNair]

Five thousand miles from here
North Sutton is sleeping.
Gas pumps doze

by Vernondale’s store.
Old farmhouses lie
tethered to the road.

How quiet they are!
Holding the darkness
still in their windows

resting their great roofs
among the trees.
Slowly, slowly they shift

their white sides
in the moonlight.
In a sound sleep

the church
lifts its stopped clock
into the night sky.

Santiago, 1978

[Click image to view]

Santiago
March 6, 1978

Dear Don & Jane —

I find I have made a mistake in the translation of “The
Beggar” which I sent on to you. The first line of that
revision is “It is not possible to live in the city”. I prefer
instead of that, “It is impossible to live in the city”. Why
I typed it the wrong way, I don’t know.

Am anxious to hear from you about the stuff I sent on. Will
send more soon. Since you folks are the only ones who know
what I’ve been up to here, it’s especially important for
me to know what you think.

Hope you will soon be dug out of all the snow which, as
we hear it, falls and falls.

Muchos Saludos —

Wes

[Click image to view]

On the flip side, please find recent poem.

Have belatedly discovered, through CSC Calendars
that friends have mailed, about the readings you
both did in Alumnae Lounge. Colby is lucky. I’m
sorry I missed them.

All is well here, Classes have started once
again, but I seem to have time withal to
write. Am still working on translations of
poems by Gonzalo Rojas – Also have been helping
Miriam Diaz w/ Adrienne Rich translations.

Won’t be long now, Don, before I teach
“Stone Walls” – which, as I say, I like in revision
(it seems more coherent, among other things) – still,
I miss some of the images in the earlier version
that I’ve dug out & reread. It’s painful
sometimes, isn’t it, what one has to throw away?

Jane, how’s the book going? Hope all
is well with you both in your respective
enterprises. Oh – forgot to mention, Don, how
very much I liked your Frost chapter of
Remembering Poets, whose I recently read in
Commentary. I walked around with it in my head
for days (should I say daze?). I will write more about it later, but honestly it was just
wonderful. For now, I am compelled to finish this up so it’ll make the Sat. afternoon mail-

Best to you both,

Wes

BEGGARS

the one without legs reaches
up as if he would have us pull him
out of the sidewalk

we cannot pull him
our money will not help
the big-chested man whose legs
are folded in front of him
like socks

when we turn an old man
is making an earnest expression
with half of his face
two sisters remember songs
behind their white eyes

where do beggars go when the streets
are full of rain
the man in a cart rowing
his half-body away
with his hands

the girl on wood crutches
doing her slow breaststroke
into our dreams

[Click image to view]

Wes McNair
5716 C.Colon
Santiago 10
Chile

Dear Wes,

I’m terribly sorry to have taken so long. I guess I wrote you what
I have been up to, so there is no point in repeating it now. I dictate
this on a Monday. Yesterday I “finished” the final revision of the revision
of Writing Well, which I will deliver tomorrow in Boston. Today I “finished”
my decisions about the make-up of A Writer’s Reader, which I will meet with
my editor about, for four hours tomorrow in Boston. Then I fly to Baltimore,
read at Goucher College, and come back the next day. I’ve got to finish my
long piece on MacLeish for the New York Times Book Review. I have to finish
taking notes on Henry Moore for the piece I will write about him, in England –
where we go in ten days. And I am supposed to finish the draft of my poetry
textbook for Holt, and I don’t know quite how many days that will take.
And I have two more poetry readings, taking me away. Wow. Anyway, I want
to write.

I’m not convinced about including the translations of Parra in your
first book of poems. I’m not sure that they mean quite that much, in
English. …I’m not against printing translations in a book. Jane is
going to do some of her Ackhamatova’s in the book. We do look forward
to seeing your book. And things are not going to be so horrendous, by
the time you get back. Even before that. I think that things will simmer
down in June and July.

…I’m glad you are coming back at the end of August. I had feared
you might take another year. Good for us all. Oh, I know we will all be
busy, and we won’t see each other all that often – but a little will be
better than none. We look forward to you and Diane.

I do believe that the version of Stone Walls which I sent you is the
last one… Until I do a Selected Poems or something anyway. My book will
be out in August, in time for your return. I have already done galleys.
They are going to print one of the old pictures of this house, on the dust
jacket and the title page. I’m pleased. …I have been having some very
good reviews, and letters, about Remembering Poets, which came out at the
end of February. So far so good.

About the Parra. I don’t like “The Beggar.” That is, I am talking
about the English poem that I read. I am not talking about your translation

2/

as opposed to anybody else’s – because I haven’t read anybody else’s – nor
am I talking about Parra, because I haven’t read it in Spanish, and couldn’t
if I had the text available. I just don’t like the poem I read here. To
me, there is nothing to it. I dislike that kind of rhythm, at the end –
which I see in about two-thirds of poems I read by college freshman.
The irony of the parenthesis seems flat. With the title, and the first two
lines, I knew exactly what the end of the poem was going to be.

And there is not a single word in it that sounds like translation-ese,
or that sounds misplaced or wrong. I wish there were another way to say
“spill their blood” but that is doubtless exactly what it is in translation

from Spanish. And I cannot believe the fault is the translations. Yet,

if you translated it, you must have found it beautiful in Spanish… So
I don’t know what to say. I think it is predictable, uninteresting etc.
I don’t like it.

On the other hand, I like “A Man” at the other extreme. I like it
very very much. It seems to me quite unpredictable. It seems absolutely
cinematic in its effects. Is that true? Or, does it seem so to you?

I don’t like “Stains on the Wall” very much, in either your version
or William’s. Most of the time, I prefer your version to William’s, but
on two occasions I sort of prefer his. I say “sort of” because I don’t like
his first line – it is awkward, really awkward – but I dislike “the darkness
descends” possibly even more. It seems pompous, latinate, overly alliterative,
corny. Neither line seems to me to have any overtones of holocaust. “Falls
completely” is a bit more violent than “descends.” “Darkness descends”
simply seems like poesy. “Falls completely on us” seems amateurish.

One place where I really think you are wrong is in using the word
“horses.” I read your translation before I saw the Williams, and read
your comments – and I was totally bewildered by “horses.” Because horses
are not mythological animals. What is wrong with this series? Horses,
dragons, salamanders. Well, what is wrong with the series is that two
of the three are mythological animals and the third one is not. (There is
a real salamander, I realize. But following mythological animals, this is
the other kind.) So I think it ought to be some osrt [sic] of mythologized horse –
hippogrif, unicorn, centaur…anything, providing it’s mythological – that
is, if it going to go with a griffin and so on.

I much prefer “mysterious” to “extraordinary” and I like “look like”
better than “seemed to be.”

The only other point where I wonder – because I definitely like men
on their knees better than I like kneeling men, etc. – is “equestrian mon-
uments” as opposed to “statues on horseback…”- where it seems to me that
equestrian monuments is a bit literary, a bit pompous sounding.

Does Parra’s Spanish have the rather terrifying pun on “coming”?
It is pretty heavy, in the English.

I like the “Memory of North Sutton.” What about dropping “the” in
the last line? The rhythm seems a bit stronger to me. I like it!

Best as ever, and hurry home, with love to Diane from Jane and me,

Don

[Click image to view]

Wes McNair
5716 C.Colon
Santiago 10
Chile

Dear Wes,

When I wrote you last, I forgot that Jane had, up stairs in her
study, your last letter, with “Beggars.” I love it. So does Jane. Could
I possibly have it for Harvard Magazine? Maybe you have already sent
it out. Very nice poem.

Yes, I miss some of those old images I cut out from Stone Walls.
Maybe I will use them some place else sometime. It moved too slowly,
and had too much repetition in it, or at least too much of the same
sort of thing. Too much fact, too much detail. It may still have,
for that matter. But I cannot worry at it right now.

Jane’s book is being typeset now. And I had my page proofs
not long ago. We are marching along in step.

I’m delighted that you like the Frost chapter of Remembering Poets.
I hope you like the whole thing, when you get a look at it. I think
that the Ezra Pound part is the best, probably.

Best as ever,

Don

[Click image to view]

Dear Don-

It worked out the way you – and I – wanted it: Ohio Review rejected
“Beggars”. Therefore, I am sending it to you for possible publication in
Harvard Magazine.

American Studies work is filling up my days – and my nights –
as we near the end of our stay here. What with responsibilities as
lecturer, designer of new A.S. courses & programs for other universities,
A.S. conference planner and, last-but-not-least, teacher, I have
lately had no time to breathe, to say nothing of writing. In fact “not
to write” is so similar to “not to breathe” that I am quite down at
the moment. Fortunately, I will be able to get back to 2 poems in progress
that I have sorely missed this weekend.

Hopefully, the Parra translation will resume next week – Maybe
I’ll even get a chance to write you a letter for a change.

For the meantime, Saludos to you & to Jane,

Wes

[Click image to view]

Dear Don & Jane –

As you have already discovered, the
man on the front of the card is myself,
mounted and dressed in C.U.C.
academic regalia, accepting the
“white horn” award for my lectures
on sexuality in American culture.

“But seriously, folks” – I am still
working on the translation of N.
Parra’s “Christo de Elqui” book
Though I have begun to doubt the
worth of the project. I have gone
through it now almost 3 times,
each trip w/ a different translator,
and the thing just doesn’t seem that
impressive. Since “anti-poetry” goes
back at least as far as dada,
the book cannot claim to be original,
so it had better extend the
“anti-poetic” mode in some interesting

2/

way. I’m not sure that it does this.

Briefly speaking, Parra’s book – whose full
title is Sermones Y Predicas del Christo
de Elqui is a sort of found poem, which
features the life/works of an actual evangelist
of the late 1920’s in Chile. In fact, the
man was pretty much crackers. Deriving
many of his “Christo’s” Sermons (each
of the book’s poems is a sermon or [preachment?])
from the real man’s own words, Parra
creates a speaker who sounds alternately
like a prophet and a lunatic. Parra says
about his Christo : “Sometimes I am his
ventriloquist, sometimes he is my ventriloquist
and sometimes we both talk together.” (We
are left to question whether the ultimate
ventriloquist in this arrangement is “God
Himself”.) Seems interesting stuff, no
cierto? – This in spite of echoes of Beckett,
Ionesco, Duchamps, etc. If it worked, the poem
might offer a rich parody of the Christ
myth, engaging its readers in a critical
evaluation of the meaning/relevance of Christianity.

But at this point what one might say
about the work is more interesting than the work –

Back August 25, 1978. Look forward to
seeing you both —

Saludos,

Wes

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10 July 1978

Wes McNair
5716 C. Colon
Santiago 10
Chile

Dear Wes, Dear Goucho [sic],

Good to hear from you. The Parra book sounds almost
untranslateable. In such a curious way, sfound poetry depends
upon the true naïf, and I would imagine that translating it
might always make it sound faux. Which is not to say that it
is not worth struggling with – and that you might not even succeed.
But it does sound hard!

We were just to the wonderful conference of English and
American poets at Stony Brook. Chile was very much a subject
of poems: Adrian Mitchell, one of the English poets, had
sheltered a Chilean refuge and her children for awhile, after
she managed to get out, after her husband was tortured to death –
famous guitar player and singer – by the Pinochet gang.

We brought Geoffrey Hill back up here with us for a few
days. Wonderful. I think that possibly he is the best person poet
writing in the English language. Sometimes I think he is one
of the best who ever wrote in it. He gave a wonderful reading
last Friday night. I wasn’t too bad myself, Friday afternoon.
I told Geoffrey after his reading that there was only one other
poet on the two continents who could read as well as he. He
did not hesitate for a moment, in identifying this poet.

My book ought to arrive any day. [Written in margin: Just came!] Jane’s will be another
month or so I suppose. We look forward to your return.

Don

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Dear Don & Jane —

Here in Iquique, on the way to
Tacha, Peru, it’s hard for me to believe
we will be in the U.S. a week from
today.

Needless to say, we look forward
to seeing you. Until then, muchos
saludos,

Wes

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Dear Don –

I am sorry to have not written to you since my
return – and that I’ve written so little to Jane. I have had
a crushing work load during the past two months. I’m not
out from under it yet.

But I must tell you about your book. It is just
wonderful! Diane bought me a copy at the Dartmouth bookstore
last week. My particular favorites are “Kicking the Leaves”,
“Flies”, “The Black-Faced Sheep”, “The Ox Cart Man”
& “Names of Horses”. We have both read the book over
and over, savoring it. It is an awfully good thing.

We have also enjoyed Remembering Poets. The Raynos
lent me their copy, and I read it straight through,
stopping only once when Diane asked me to do some errands
and began reading it herself. We were both sorry when
we had no more book to read.

My own book – the volume of poems – 1) almost ready.
I figure I have only 2-3 poems left to do. I
plan on a count of 24 or so. If you are still
interested in seeing it, I’d like very much to show it
to you sometime up ahead.

In any case, would like to see you both sometime soon –
when the “wild” schedule to which Jane refers quiets down.

In the meantime, thanks for so much truly
pleasurable reading.

Wes (& Diane)

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Wes McNair
No. Sutton
New Hampshire

Dear Wes,

It seems so silly, to have you back here from Chile – and
me looking forward to your return – and then not to call you up
and drag you over here. It seems to me that this has happened
before, in my life. I am working, approximately, from about 5:30
AM to 10 PM. And I’m not going to tell you that I don’t enjoy it,
because I do. But life is full. …And we do look forward to seeing
you. We have several times hit on a date, between us, when we were
going to ask you – but had to hold off, and then seen the time go.
Probably it would have been difficult for you to come over, any
one of these days, anyway. But we must give it a try.

I’m delighted that you like the book. Wonderful. Remembering
Poets is coming out in paperback in January. Kicking the Leaves
sold out its first printing, and has been reprinted. Things are
going quite well.

I do look forward to your volume of poems. I certainly do
want to see it, and I hope I can be of some help.

Best as ever,

Don

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Dear Don,

I have finally finished typing the “book-book,” as you
once called it, and I am scared as hell. All the time I was typing
it, I was convinced no one had written a book this good. Now, I am
convinced it is no good at all.

In my off-moments, I think that section 2’s “porno poems,”
through which I recall the wildly male-chauvinist world of
adolescence, are not the right thing. And then I begin to think
that these and some of my other earlier poems are not tight enough
in their form. It gets worse.

Help! Please let me know what you think! Could it be that
a miracle has occurred, and I am done?

Yours in desperation,

Wes