Poetry Must Be Capable Of Answering The

I Once Started Out To Walk Around The World But Ended Up In Brooklyn, That Bridge Was Too Much For Me.

This Is All Very Nice, Because The Ideas That Jack And The Beat Generation Stood For Are Needed Today More Than Ever. But I'm Not So Interested In Nostalgia. I'm Interested In The Future.

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.

You Can Publish A Poem You Think Is A Very Important Poem, And You Don't Hear A Word From Anyone. [...] You Can Publish A Book Of Poetry By Dropping It Off A Cliff And Waiting To Hear An Echo. Quite Often, You'll Never Hear A Thing. So Doing That, Using Older Work, Puts It In A Context, And That Sort Of Forces The Reader To Realize What Its Importance Is-if It Has Any. Everything Needs A Context. You're Not Going To Recognize A Poet Unless You Have A Context.

Almost Every Truly Creative Being Alienated & Expatriated In His Own Country