I picked up a copy of "Rain Taxi" yesterday. There's a review of a Rexroth Complete Poems, edited by Bradford Morrow and Sam Hamill, and most of the passages that the reviewer quotes are horrible, just wooden and without music. Is Rexroth often this bad? (I've read very little of him, I realize now as I write this). Why did New Directions publish him? Shouldn't be poetry be as well written as prose? Look especially at the long passage quoted on the first page of the review. You would have to try hard to write this badly on purpose. What am I missing?

For the undeveloped heart
The news or even the sight
Of the destruction of thousands
Of other human beings
May assume only the form
Of a distant cry, coming
Through the complexities of
Disaster . . .

This is pretty bad prose:

For the undeveloped heart, the new or even the sight of the destruction of thousands of other human beings may assume only the form of a distant cry, coming through the complexities of disaster...