The State Of The World

We'd Like To Just Write Nothing But Lyric Poetry. The Trouble Is, The Individual Is Going Along Intent On His Own Personal Gratifications And Love Affairs And Financial Affairs And Everything Else. But Loping Alongside Him Is This Fascist Lout Who Keeps Trying To Take Over. And If You Keep Ignoring Him, He Gets Bigger And Bigger, So Every Once In A While The Free Individual Has To Turn Away From His Private Pursuits And Give This Fascist Lout A Few Clouts, And Beat Him Down To Size.

See It Was Like This When We Waltz Into This Place. A Couple Of Papish Cats Is Doing An Aztec Two-step And I Says Dad Let's Cut But Then This Dame Comes Up Behind Me See And Says You And Me Could Really Exist Wow I Says Only The Next Day She Has Bad Teeth And Really Hates Poetry.

T.s. Eliot's Influence Was Enormous On My Generation. Much More Than Ezra Pound. I Actually Had To Put T.s. Eliot Books Out Of The House Because My Poetry Was So Influenced. Everything I Wrote Sounded Like Eliot.

Western Civilization Has Been In A State Of Decline Since The Edwardian Age, Say 1910. That Was The Height Of Greco-roman European Civilization. Then There Was The First World War. That Was The Beginning Of The End. That Civilization Has Been In A Decline Ever Since. But From The American Triumphalist Point Of View Our Wonderful Electronic Revolution Is Really The Forefront Of An Ongoing Wonderful Civilization.

When You're Young, Everything Seems Like A Romance. At 96, I Can Still Feel Romantic About Publishing Young Unknown Writers.