On to the N's, Niedecker and Notley. The recent edition of Niedecker's poems is welcome because it is all too easy to see her as the author of a few short perfect poems. It might not make sense that I chose Niedecker and not Zukofsky, who tends to irritate me, depite my admiration for his technical virtues. All those Valentines Day poems. I couldn't argue that Lorine is better than Zukofsky, but I find that I tend to choose as my favorites poets who don't come with as much "baggage." The poem "If I were a bird" (p. 130 of the recent edition), shows her sense of her immediate tradition. It starts out like this:

If I were a bird
I'd be a dainty contained cool
Greek figurette
on a morning shore--
H.D.

I'd flitter and feed and delouse myself
close to Williams' house
and his kind eyes

She goes on, with references to Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens, cummmings, Zukofsky, and Reznikoff. What a wonderful pantheon of influences to have! It's interesting that she leaves Pound out of the equation. The American modernists discouraged her from pursuing a more surrealist bent. I imagine what might have been, had they encouraged her in this direction instead.

It is strange that, although I list her as a favorite, I haven't spent nearly the same number of hours with her as with many others on my list. As with Ceravalo, I "get it" immediately with very little effort. I return once and a while to remind myself of how wonderful it is.

R. Silliman is inspiring me to read Grenier, but I have yet to acquire the books. From what I've read of him he does have that "unencumbered" quality that I seem to crave so much. How could he have studied with Robert Lowell?