I bought a Witter Bynner translation. The Jade Mountain. It's not a first edition or anything, but a nice hardbound book in good condition, printed the month I was born. On the theory that one can never have too many translation of Chinese poetry.

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I'm writing a Villanelle without rhyme or meter. The repetition of the lines is enough, with a pantoum-like quality. I never rhyme my pantoums either.

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Frank O'Hara invented a new kind of long poem in the poem for Michael B's Birthday and Biotherm for B.B. The New York Tiimes doesn't know it yet. It only happened 45 years ago, so you wouldn't expect them to have caught on yet.

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Simic has a good piece on Wilbur in the most recent NYRB. It's not on line so you'll have to find a physical copy of the rag. What Simic says about Wilbur's unevenness is quite true. I still can't help thinking that Simic himself is not a quarter of the poet Wilbur is, when Wilbur is at his best. SOME POET! Simic has a very narrow range, although he is consistent within that range. I'd rather be uneven than be even and not ever superb. Simic just doesn't ever give me enough for the eye, the ear, the mind. I just demand more from poetry, I guess.