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Showing posts from October 30, 2016

Max Richards shares: 9, Denise Levertov

Cuttings, held together by a slightly rusted paper clip, fall from his copy of Penguin Modern Poets 9: Denise Levertov, Kenneth Rexroth, William Carlos Williams. (Penguin Books, 1967). They include a typed version of ' The Rainwalkers ' , and photocopies of ' February Evening in New York ' and ' The Cold Spring ' , the second with a note in Max’s hand " comp[are] with Dickinson ‘The Bustle’." Was he taking a class or writing a review? Then this one page hand-written set of notes about poetic construction. Are they Max Richards’ own responses or his summary of things by Levertov collated from her writings for reference? Or a bit of both? Whatever the case, the page has the feel of a trouvée poem:   24-7-81 Denise Levertov on non-traditional metrics free verse: impulse to flow, avoidance of the interruption of pattern But ‘wellwrought’…? ‘organic form’ 19 th c. a term taken over by shampoo manufacturers!