I just received "Miniatures," by Barbara Guest, in the mail. Before I opened the book I had a moment's panic: what if this book was by a different poet, who also happened to have the name of Barbara Guest? A completely irrational thought, dispelled immediately when I began to read. What if the other Barbara Guest were also a marvelous poet?

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David Shapiro's poem "Master Canterel at Locus Solus." It would be completely incomprehensible to someone who had never heard of Raymond Roussel and John Ashbery. I am fondest of Roussel's early long poems written in perfect Alexandrines, like "La Vue." These have not been translated in full into English. Kenneth Koch's "The Railway Stationary" is a parody of Roussel's style. Poets should be able to expect that their readers do, in fact, know things like this. I don't believe in the ordinary reader, per se. I first read Roussel because of Ashbery. I first read Flann O'Brien because someone had mentioned him as a favorite writer of Frank O'Hara. This more than twenty years ago.