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Sunday, August 14, 2005

Robert Lowell letters on hold

I was able to get a copy of The Letters of Robert Lowell on hold at the library. They only had one copy in the Mid-Continent system and it was out. I also looked for the newer release, Wild Perfection: Selected Letters of James Wright. I believe this has only been out about a month and they don't as of yet have it. I am anxious to read both of these books in hopes of gaining some greater insight into their individual poetic theory. I know that Robert Bly has had a great deal of influence on Wright - particularly in his latter years.

I worked on two poems yesterday. One was completely new, the other was something I first wrote earlier this year at a Woodbine, Iowa writing weekend workshop. I'm not 100% satisfied with either of them, but overall I believe yesterdays work was successful. It is important to remember that such progress is often incremental and to keep this fact in focus so as not to become discouraged. Lately, discouragement has been battle I fight.

One thing I need to do is broaden my subject matter. So a real brainstorm is in order or I need to look for some writing idea prompts. At times I have exchanged such prompts with other writers from time to time but I haven't done this for a while.

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