Like Most People Who Smoked Umpteen Cigarettes

Writers Quite Often Starve. And I'm Mainly Just Writing Critical Prose And Poetry, That's A Formula For Starvation.

Pound Had Argued - And Eliot Had Helped Him Prove - That A Poem Could Be Sustained By Memorable Moments. Olson Proved That It Could Be Sustained By Unmemorable Ones, Provided That The Texture Of The Accumulated Jottings Avoided The Sound Of Failed Poetry.

Once, Bbc Television Had Echoed Bbc Radio In Being A Haven For Standard English Pronunciation. Then Regional Accents Came In: A Democratic Plus. Then Slipshod Usage Came In: An Egalitarian Minus. By Now Slovenly Grammar Is Even More Rife On The Bbc Channels Than On Itv. In This Regard A Decline Can Be Clearly Charted... If The Bbc, Once The Guardian Of The English Language, Has Now Become Its Most Implacable Enemy, Let Us At Least Be Grateful When The Massacre Is Carried Out With Style.

Ban Poetry. And Make Sure That Anyone Caught Reading It Is Expelled From School. Then It Will Acquire The Glamour.

Twin Miracles Of Mascara, Her Eyes Looked Like The Corpses Of Two Small Crows That Had Crashed Into A Chalk Cliff.