For The Past Thirty Years Or So,

I Remember Coming Upon Philip Larkin In My 20s In The Early '60s And When Sylvia Plath's "ariel" Came Out It Knocked Me Off My Feet.

For The Past Thirty Years Or So, Much American Poetry Has Been Marked By An Earnestness That Rejects The Comic. This Has Nothing To Do With Seriousness. The Comic Can Be Very Serious. The Trouble With The Earnest Is That It Seeks To Be Commended. It Seeks To Be Praised For Its Intention More Than For What It Is Saying.

There Are Many Reasons For Violence. This Is Just Something That Sometimes Happens. We'd See It In Treatment Centers - The Child Who'd Suffered Something Awful. Even In The Best Recovery There'd Be A Fear That Everything Would Fall Apart And They'd Become Victims Again. And Their Final Loyalty Was To Themselves. They Couldn't Be Forced. They Preferred To Wreck Everything, Preferred Self-destruction To Surrender. (175)

Actions Have Consequences. Ignorance About The Nature Of Those Actions Does Not Free A Person From Responsibility For The Consequences. (28)

When A Philosopher, Scientist, Or Psychologist Discusses The Discrepancy Between The Actual And The Ideal, He Or She Attempts To Convince Us With The Tools Of Discursive Thought ... An Artist Does It Differently ... Their Primary Approach Is Different, Even Though Both Groups, If You Will, Are Investigating The Actual, The Ideal, And The Discrepancy In Between.