25 feb 2005

Donald Hall revises? Who'd have guessed? How come his poems are still unimpressive if they've been rewritten 80 times? Why doesn't he just not write dead metaphors in the first place? The revision fetish is just as dumb as the no revision, "first thought best thought" fetish. Ashbery revises very little. Same with Creeley. Bronk didn't revise much. All better poets than Hall, who in a generation that included 50-100 truly interesting poets still managed to find a niche for himself. Even Bly and Simpson have more to offer. You have to admire that degree of persistence.

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