{"id":1695,"date":"2012-03-30T14:04:09","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T18:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/?p=1695"},"modified":"2013-12-13T14:24:25","modified_gmt":"2013-12-13T18:24:25","slug":"mcnair-to-hall-september-5-1980","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/mcnair-to-hall-september-5-1980\/","title":{"rendered":"McNair to Hall: September 5, 1980"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
\"McNair-to-Hall-09-05-1980\"<\/a>\"McNair-to-Hall-09-05-1980\"<\/a><\/p>\n

[Click image to view]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

September 5, 1980<\/p>\n

Dear Don,<\/p>\n

As always, you are right about my poem, and right
\nthat it should be left for awhile. After my frenzied
\ncorrespondence about it, I sat down and read it, I mean
\nreally<\/span> read it, and I saw that I must try to reveal
\nmore of the innocence of the \u201cslow children,\u201d so that the last
\nline suggests their ability to break free even of the
\ncircumstances which led to their joy, into \u201cpure joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

What made me nervous, too, was that the poem was
\ntoo close to making fun of the children. I went too
\nfar, I think, towards trying to be \u201cobjective\u201d in
\nmy presentation of them, fearing that I might become
\nsentimental if I allowed myself too much sympathy.
\nIt may well turn out that the hard part is done \u2013
\nie, I already have the situation I need for the poem,
\nsome of its images and the kind of pacing I need.
\nThe movement of the poem towards the \u201cinnerness\u201d of
\nthe slow children \u2013 that pacing \u2013 took a long time
\nto get, and I don\u2019t expect that<\/span> part to change much. Also,
\nI still like the way they transform the game and
\nits meaning.<\/p>\n

But this is<\/span> a hard thing to write about, especially
\ngiven the situation of the retarded on a baseball field.<\/p>\n

2<\/p>\n

If<\/span> I can deal with such a risky situation, I
\nmay have a better poem for it.<\/p>\n

But I do go on. Thanks for writing about the
\npoem and for being your usual shrewd self.<\/p>\n

Thanks too for repeating what you told Diane
\nabout the \u201cplacement\u201d of my poems in Poetry<\/span>.
\nYou make me feel good all over again. It would<\/span>
\nbe nice if Nims took other stuff.<\/p>\n

Oh \u2013 and my lips are sealed about your secret.
\nMy own secret is that I do not have to feel sorry
\nfor myself<\/span> this term. One good thing about being
\nthere instead of here<\/span> would be the chance to see
\nyou to talk every now and then. But maybe
\nwe can manage that here<\/span>, with a get-together soon.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s better with bourbon, anyway.<\/p>\n

I am going to try<\/span> not to send you anything
\nfor awhile now. I do have poems,
\nand many things underway, too \u2013 perhaps too<\/span>
\nmany. But I feel I should keep them in my own
\nhead for awhile.<\/p>\n

So \u2013 until then \u2013<\/p>\n

Love,<\/p>\n

Wes<\/p>\n

P.S. Did you see the poem \u201cVenice\u201d by James Wright
\nin the June Poetry<\/span>? Wasn\u2019t that fine<\/span>?<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n

\n <\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[Click image to view] September 5, 1980 Dear Don, As always, you are right about my poem, and right that it should be left for awhile. After my frenzied correspondence about it, I sat down and read it, I mean really read it, and I saw that I must try to reveal more of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35324,35504,42973,42963,293],"tags":[],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2206"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1695"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10960,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1695\/revisions\/10960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/csc-mcnair\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}