Well, you could keep the epigraph but drop the
ascription – which would at least stop it from seeming to
be that business of the author quoting his own kid. Or
you could build the epigraph into a stanza, maybe. Or – I
really think – the poem could hold up without it, including
the parts that you quote.
Do write to Peter Davison to tell him that he will
receive your poems from the folks down at Amaryllis…
It does seem typical of Griffith that he would be
able to conceive of the notion that eighty poets will “win
growing recognition in the decade ahead!” How absurd. There
are not eighty poets in American literature! There were not
eighty poets in the Elizabethan Age!
I don’t think that anybody is going to read the
anthology much… But I don’t
think it will hurt you to be in it. I would send him only
poems which have previously been printed. It would be absolutely
crazy to waste an unprinted poem on him. Therefore I would not send the whole book. You could just remove the unpublished
poems from it. If you like, just go ahead and do that.
