Oct
26
2011
One of the themes of W. S. Merwin's reading/talk/performance a couple of weeks ago was imagination. "Not living by imagination is killing us," he said, and went on to connect nature and imagination, saying exactly this: "Nature is imagination." I've been thinking about this as I've been rereading W. C. Williams's "Asphodel, That Greeny Flower," a poem that is just as full of abstractions (love, death) as things, but which offers finger and
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2 comments | tags: Asphodel That Greeny Flower, imagination, No ideas but in things, poetry, W.C. Williams, W.S. Merwin, writing
Oct
18
2011
Not handfuls, but hundreds, lined up early in the corridor of the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago, October 6, to await poet W. S. Merwin's 6 p.m. reading. My family and I were lucky to be in the audience, fifth row center.
Merwin is 84, but his presentation--nearly two hours long--showed tremendous stamina, vitality, and, of course, the irresistible (to me) sensibility he's developed after decades of devotion to poetry and the land. During the extensive remarks he made between
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2 comments | tags: Asphodel That Greeny Flower, Chicago, poetry, poetry reading, W.C. Williams, W.S. Merwin
