Collecte Works (50 page)

Paul, hello    Unpublished.

Poem V of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP FOUR
” MS (undated, probably 1951).

“Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955) moves this poem to the “very end.” At this date the poem is still part of “
FOR PAUL.
”

So this was I    Unpublished in book form.

MS dated Nov. 1951.

Titled “Poem” in
Accent
13.2 (Spring 1953): 96.

Am I real way out in space    Unpublished.

Poem V of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP SIX
” MS, dated Oct. 22, 1952.

“Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955) omits the poem.

On a row of cabins/next my home
    Unpublished.

Undated MS.

Part of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP SEVEN
” MS (undated, probably 1952/3).

In moonlight lies    Unpublished.

Poem III of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP 8
” MS, dated Dec. 31, 1953.

“Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955) omits the poem.

The cabin door flew open    Unpublished.

An alternative poem IV of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP 8
” MS (undated). LN offers a variant “generally happy” for line 12.

The elegant office girl    Unpublished.

Poem VII of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP 8
” MS (undated).

The first two stanzas are inserted into the second (Aug. 30, 1955) and third (1956) versions of the five-page “Dear Paul,” cited in full in the note to the condensed version printed in this edition (see pp. 395-401).

When brown folk lived a distance    Unpublished.

Sent to Dahlberg Aug. 30, 1955, for his proposed anthology.

FOR PAUL AND OTHER POEMS

In 1947, LN visited the Zukofskys in New York. Already she had been taking great delight in LZ's written accounts of his young son, Paul, born in 1943. In 1949 she began her “
FOR PAUL
” project and, with her resignation from Hoard's in June 1950 due to her deteriorating eyesight, she would work on the poems unimpeded.

Many of the poems are addressed directly to Paul, some quote LZ's letters to her, others refer to her life on Black Hawk Island and to her family—her mother and father died in the course of the project, her mother in July 1951 and her father in June 1954.

The “
FOR PAUL
” project began with the composition of numbered poems gathered into eight groups. The first group was published under the title of “
FOR PAUL
” in
New Directions
12 (1950): 181-85, and the second group under the title of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” in the
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 206-11. She wrote the eight groups steadily between 1949 and 1953. The surviving MSS for groups 6-8 appear to be incomplete. At some point after 1953, LN abandoned the grouped structure, and between 1955 and 1956 arranged the poems in a collection named “
FOR PAUL
and Other Poems” (FPOP). A typescript titled “Changes in
FOR PAUL
” (Jan. 29, 1955) lists ongoing revisions. The FPOP MS (Dec. 1956) divides the poems into two sections: “
FOR PAUL
” (43 poems) and “
OTHER POEMS
” (29 poems). The texts of eight of the poems carry LZ's suggested deletions, many of which LN adopted. His deletions generally remove direct references to Paul. FPOP was never published despite her efforts to find a publisher. She reduced the collection to 41 poems for a book that Jonathan Williams considered publishing. By the early 1960s, having given up hope of publishing it in book form, she dismantled the collection and published most of its contents in magazines.

FOR PAUL

Paul    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

Poem I of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Nov. 20, 1949. In the MS, in poem I of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 181, in FPOP, and in
T&G
, line 1 reads “Dear Paul”.

What bird would light    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

Poem II of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Nov. 20, 1949 and poem II of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 181.

Nearly landless and on the way to water    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

Poem III of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Nov. 20, 1949, poem III of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 181-82, and FPOP, all include the following variants:

stanza 1 adds lines 6-7:

who'd asked the carpenter, “Homer,

did you write that book?”

stanza 2 adds 3 words to the start of line 1: Yes, Paul dear, Homer's…

stanza 2 also adds a line 7: People like us, child, see through it.

LN's note on the 1949 MS: “Notice alternative on other side of page. Tell me which lines to keep. I like yr. suggestion 1st stanza but the child belongs to my present view not to the one I lost and yet I like the surrealism—saw and see both. Last stanza—I didn't like
in
in each of first 3 lines so do you like the change?”

On FPOP, LZ suggests the omission of the variant words and lines noted above. LN adopts his revisions.

Understand me, dead is nothing    Unpublished in book form [FPOP].

Poem IV of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950, and poem IV of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 182-83. On FPOP, LZ suggests that LN omit the poem.

How bright you'll find young people,    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP],

Poem V of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950. LN's annotation refers to the final rhyming word of the poem: “I like this but do you think reader remembers Diddle [Paul] all that long?”

Poem V of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 183.

The spelling of “Einsteind” is consistent in all appearances.

If he is of constant depth    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

Poem VI of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950, poem VI of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 183, and FPOP, all include variant lines 3-4:

numbers plus the good in em—

all the technique by the time he's twelve

The young ones go away to school    
MFT, T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

An early MS dated March 1, 1950:

The young ones go away to school

come home to moon

like Frederick the Great

what was it he ate

that had to be sown in the dark of the moon?

Looking for rain?

Wait for the moon to change

But Edwin—Edwin's glorious—

runs all over his acres without a hat

as though he knew

                            the moon

changes every day

LN offers a variant final word: noon

A revised MS—poem VII of the “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950—and poem VII of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 183-84, have one variant, for line 8: how people run their acres without a hat

Revised to the present text for FPOP.

In “
EIGHT POEMS,
”
Monks Pond
1 (Spring 1968): 7.

Some have chimes    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP, EA].

Poem VIII of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950, poem VIII of “
FOR PAUL,
” in
New Directions
12 (1950): 184, and in “
THREE POEMS,
”
Granta
71.12456 (1964/5): 19.

O Tannenbaum    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP],

Poem IX of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950, and of “
FOR PAUL,
”
New Directions
12 (1950): 184-85, begins with the following companion poem:

You are far away

sweet reason

Since I saw you last, Paul,

my sight is weaker…

I still see—

it's the facts are thick—

thru glass:

a peace scare on Wall St.

Poem IX of “
FOR PAUL
” MS, dated Aug. 21, 1950, continues with:

O Tannenbaum they sing

round and round

one child sings out:

atomic bomb

not all suckling

where Paul is

and check-writing

but as the queen, Elizabeth,

……

In
New Directions
and FPOP lines 1-2 above are revised to the following three:

O Tannenbaum

the children seem to sing

round and round

FPOP omits the companion poem “You are far away.”

For subsequent appearances, LN adopts LZ's suggested omissions from lines 1-3 and 6-8 noted on FPOP.

In the great snowfall before the bomb    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

Poem XIV of “
FOR PAUL:
Group Two” MS, dated Dec. 30, 1950.

variant stanza 1, lines 3-5:

at windows,

the only glow of contemplation

in our time

LN offers a variant ending to this stanza, adding a 6th line: along this road.

variant stanza 3, lines 2-6:

I took my bundles of hog feeder price lists

by Larry the Lug,

I'd never got anywhere

because I'd never had suction,

you know, pull, favor, drag,

Poem XIV of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,
”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 208, adopts the variant stanza 1, line 6 (“along this road”) offered on the MS and revises stanza 3, lines 2-6:

I carried my bundles of hog feeder price lists

by Larry the Lug,

I'd never got anywhere

because I'd never had suction,

you know: pull, favor, drag,

Revised to the present text for FPOP.

T&G
variant stanza 1, line 4: along the road

Not all that's heard is music. We leave    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

Poem X of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” MS, dated Dec. 14, 1950, poem X of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,
”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 206, and FPOP, all include the following variants:

line 1: Not all that's heard is music. Paul, we leave

line 5: but fascists'—you have the world. Remember the little

LN adopts LZ's suggested omissions from lines 1 and 5; the suggested omissions are noted on FPOP.

Tell me a story about the war.    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

A revision of the earlier “NG” MS version, “The Marshal of France made a speech” (see p. 378). The revision reflects the new context of the “
FOR PAUL
” poems.

In the “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” MS, dated Jan. 16, 1951, in poem XVI of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,
”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 209, and in FPOP, there is a variant line 1: Tell me a story about the last war.

In MS it is paired with “Laval, Pomeret, Pétain” (MS dated Jan. 16, 1951). In FPOP,
T&G
and
MLBW
, the poems appear as adjacent but separate poems.

Laval, Pomeret, Pétain    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].

On the “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” MS, dated Jan. 16, 1951, it is paired with “Tell me a story about the war” (see note above).

variant line 1: Yes, Laval, Pomeret, Pétain

variant line 8: Now let's practice your dance.

Revised to the present text for FPOP.

T&G
line 8: Now let's practice your dance

Thure Kumlien
    Unpublished [FPOP] and Shut up in woods    
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP, EA],

Both of these poems derive from two longer and closely related MSS.

The first is a “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO
” MS dated by LZ as “earlier” than Jan. 18, 1951:

I'd like to tell you about a man

of a hundred years ago.

He was here while the wild white swans

were still afloat. Bigwigs wrote

from Boston: Thure, we must know

about the sandhill crane,

is it ever white with you and how many

eggs can you obtain?

Grandchildren played with his mounted birds.

“Imagine playing horse

with a pink flamingo! Imagine eight of us

schooled and exposed to a course

of music” one of them sums it up,

grandchildren of her own.

“And gathered around the first lamp—

kerosene—how we shone.”

For Thure The Solitary Tattler,

Wilson's Phalarope.

He exchanged dried New England plants

for those around his home

at Koshkonong. One day he found

an aster down in the ditch

by the old turnpike—to it he gave

his name as tho he were rich.

…

The trouble with war for a botanist—

he daren't drop out of the line

of march to examine a flower—can only

hope to come back sometime

or now in power wars when half

the world is shell-burst

observe a sky-exotic

attract a bomber-bird.

…

Dear little Curlew

how are you

on Willow St.

your ear on all us pipers

as we bleat.

LN's annotation: “I did better on an ode to Koshkonong in high school. [“Reminiscence”; see p. 367] Unless you insist I won't use it. Second stanza might be omitted and third begin: He saw The Solitary Tattler ‘is it ever white’—they changed color as do herons and egrets in various stages of growth in various sections of country as they fly up this way from Florida.”

The above draft is revised for poem XVII of “
FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,
”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.1 (Spring 1951): 210, with the following changes:

lines 3-4:

He was here when wild swans were still