TO THE SWIFT

Concerning the letters written about your use of my poem (“at the bar”) from my book, “The Aroma of Toast,” in the March 31 Book Review:

I can’t agree with Mary Saunders that your printing my short poem was “unfair” to me. Unlike, for instance, William Carlos Williams’ “red wheel/barrow” segment from his 1923 “Spring and All” that is often reproduced out of context, my short poem was presented as a unit, so correctly reproduced by the Book Review.

As to its significance as a poem, I thought it a beautiful irony that Saunders’ letter came after the reproduction of the “At the Bar” poem by Williams from 1938 that Jack Miles dug up--thanks, Jack. It’s what Williams had to face all his life.

I agree with Jill Swift that there is enough good poetry written today to justify a book reviewed per week--but those reviews are being written and published. The Book Review is supporting poetry in its own way, and I am grateful to its editors for selecting my work--and for this dialogue.

Let’s see if they’ll continue to support poetry in their own way and give the last word to Williams; this from his 1955 “Journey to Love”:

It is difficult

To get the news from poems

Yet men die miserably every day

For lack

Of what is found there.

CRAIG COTTER, ALTADENA