Collecte Works (56 page)

Poet's work     T&G, MLBW.

MS dated June 8, 1962.

In “5
POEMS,”
Origin
ser. 2, 8 (Jan. 1963): 27, there are periods at the end of each stanza.

In
T&G
the poem is untitled.

Property is poverty—     Unpublished in book form.

MS dated June 8, 1962. LN's annotation on MS: “(Don't confuse this with reality—I don't have to foreclose)”

In a numbered group of
“THREE POEMS,”
Poetry
102.5 (Aug. 1963): 302-303, where the opening line mistakenly reads: Prosperity is poverty.

Now in one year      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

MS version dated June 8, 1962, is a “five-liner”:

Now in one year a book

published and plumbing—

took a lifetime to weep

          a deep

trickle

Revised to the present text for a numbered group of
“THREE POEMS,”
Poetry
102.5 (Aug. 1963): 303.

River-marsh-drowse      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

MS dated June 8, 1962:

The river ran off

into marsh and in flood

      moonlight

                 gave sight

of no land.

They fished, a man

took his wife to town

with his rowboat's 10-horse,

      shipped his voice

to the herons.

Sure they'd drink—

full foamy folk

       till asleep

               asleep

on one leg in the weeds.

A second MS dated June 19, 1962, revises the poem to the present text for the numbered group of
“THREE POEMS,”
Poetry
102.5 (Aug. 1963): 302.

Club 26     T&G, MLBW.

Titled “Place to Dine” in
Midwest
(Spring 1963): 54; variant lines 6-11:

built white on a red carpet

quiet

for the massive steak

the circular cool bar

fingers caressing glass stems

We stayed till the stamens trembled

An account of the experience related in the poem can be found in
NCZ
, July 29, 1962. LN submitted the poem to
Midwest
in August 1962 (
NCZ
318).

To foreclose      
T&G, MLBW.

Titled “O Catullus” in
Joglars
1.1 (Spring 1964): 10, where it is the first of
“THREE POEMS IN ONE YEAR, JONATHAN.”

LN to LZ, Jan. 4, 1963: “Just wrote poem on foreclosing. Venom against property, the law, etc. I invoked Cat. 93 (Gregory's 2 lines for 93), the second line changed enough to suit what
I'm
talking about” (
NCZ
327).

To my small/electric pump     T&G, MLBW
[EA].

The second of
“THREE POEMS IN ONE YEAR, JONATHAN,”
Joglars
1.1 (Spring 1964).

Submitted to
Joglars
in late 1963 (
NCZ
341).

T.E. Lawrence     MLBW
[EA].

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 32.

LN to LZ, Dec. 26, 1963: “Strange that the name Lawrence has such a fascination for me—D.H. and T. E., the latter overwhelmingly so. He was in the center of his own silence no matter how much action went on around him” (
NCZ
337).

A ten-page typescript sent to Ron Ellis on Oct. 26, 1966, titles the poem,
“From T. E. Lawrence.”

As I paint the street      
T&G, MLBW.

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 18, and
T&G
add a final line: “from his neon home”. The opening line is a title in its
Origin
appearance.

The language of the poem can be traced to her Dec. 13, 1963, letter to LZ (
NCZ
338) and her March 12, 1964, letter to CC (
BYHM
43).

Art Center     T&G, MLBW.

Paris Review
8.32 (1964): 198.

LN to LZ, Jan. 7, 1964: “My lovely husband…took me down to the Art Center. The building has box-like wings on the shore of the lake, gives impression of being all glass. If every human being took turns living there for only two days, we'd all come out a lovely new race” (
NCZ
341-42).

In 1964, LN made three holograph collections of poems written into small, bound books and illustrated with watercolor paintings of her new home on Black Hawk Island. The first (8″×5″) was titled
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(30 poems) and went to Cid Corman as a gift—“the product of the last year”—in Oct. 1964; the second two (6“ × 4½”), titled
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(25 poems), went to LZ and to Jonathan Williams for Xmas 1964. The contents of the three are roughly equivalent—the collections have 22 poems in common although several are revised between
“HOMEMADE”
and
“HANDMADE.”
At the end of the notes, the contents of each book are listed.

Consider at the outset:      
T&G, MLBW.

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964), variant line 8: A delicacy—the marrow.

Revised to the present text for
Poetry
106.5 (Aug. 1965): 342, where it appears in a numbered group of
“FIVE POEMS.”

Ah your face      
NC, MLBW.

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 20.

Included in
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS”
(see p. 244).

Alcoholic dream      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

Paris Review
8.32 (Summer/Fall 1964): 198.

To my pres-/sure pump     T&G, MLBW.

In a numbered group of
“FIVE POEMS,”
Poetry
106.5 (Aug. 1965): 341.

Laundromat
       Unpublished in book form.

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964), variant stanza 1:

Once again a public wedding

a casual, sudsy

social affair

at the tubs

Copytext for posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

Revised to the present text for
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964) and
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 21.

March     T&G, MLBW.

In a numbered group of
“FIVE POEMS,”
Poetry
106.5 (Aug. 1965): 342.

Something in the water      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

Combustion 15/Island
6 (n.d.): 31.

Santayana's
       Unpublished.

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964), variant lines 2-3:

I don't know poetry?—

I like somewhat the putrid Petrarch

Copytext for posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

Revised to the present text for
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964). Both copies record her hesitation: “I might never use this—too much his own words.”

If only my friend      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

Very likely written in late 1962 when her friendship with Harold Hein was ending.

Frog noise/suddenly stops         Unpublished.

Published posthumously in
BC
(1976).

In the transcendence         Unpublished.

First stanza published posthumously in
BC
(1976).

To whom         Unpublished in book form.

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964), variant lines 1-2:

Is there someone

I can leave

Copy text for posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964), variant lines 1-2:

Someone?—

I can leave

variant line 7: copper-braced

variant line 9: when I leave

Revised to the present text for
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 26.

Margaret Fuller
       Unpublished in book form.

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 25 and posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

Watching dan-/cers on skates     T&G, MLBW.

The present text follows
“HOMEMADE/HANDMADE POEMS,”
T&G
, and
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 27, which all break the title into two lines.

MLBW
variant: unbroken title on single line.

Hospital Kitchen
       Unpublished in book form.

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 21, and posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

Chicory flower/on campus     T&G, MLBW.

In
“THREE POEMS,”
Granta
71.12456 (1964/5): 19, with variant line 5: in earth-evolved

Fall
(“Early morning corn”)      
T&G.

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964) adds an eighth line: tittle

Revised to the present text for
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964).

LZ's
       Unpublished.

LZ's copy of
“HANDMADE POEMS”
carries the note: “Never to be sent out if you say so.” Copytext for posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

Letter from Ian     T&G, MLBW.

In
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964),
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964), and
Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 23, the poem is titled
“Ian's”
with variant lines 2-3:

middle of Edinburgh

a castle on a rock—

LN to LZ, Sept. 11, 1961, includes transcribed extracts from letters from Ian Hamilton Finlay and Jessie McGuffie: “As for the castle, aye sure, there's a big castle on a rock in the middle of Edinburgh—we'll send you a postcard—and they floodlight it, and have a big show up there, with pipe bands and all…. Life is most hectic these days—you can't step outside without meeting a posse of poets from the Festival (
NCZ
291 n.3).

Some float off on chocolate bars      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964), lines 7-10:

                       and let the birds live

Myself I gripped

my melting container one night

I heard the wild

Revised to the present text for
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964).

EA inserts an extra line between lines 10 and 11: and the wood on the house

I knew a clean man      
T&G, MLBW.

Combustion 15/Island
6 (n.d.): 33.

Scythe     T&G, MLBW.

So he said/on radio
       Unpublished.

Published posthumously in
BC
(1976).

I visit/the graves     T&G, MLBW
[EA].

The third of
“THREE POEMS IN ONE YEAR, JONATHAN,”
Joglars
1.1 (Spring 1964). Submitted to
Joglars
in late 1963 (
NCZ
341), but perhaps originating in a visit to her family gravesites recounted to LZ in Oct. 1960 (
NCZ
269-70).

EA adds an apostrophe to “sons'” in line 2.

For best work      
NC, MLBW.

Also included in
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS”
(see p. 242).

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 22, and
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).

The obliteration         Unpublished in book form.

In
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964):

The radio talk this morning

was of obliterating

the world

I notice fruit flies rise

from the rind

of the recommended

melon

Copytext for posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

In Jonathan Williams's
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964), line 4 reads: Fruit flies rise

Revised to the present text for
Lines
5 (May 1965): 33.

Spring      
T&G, MLBW.

In a numbered group of
“FIVE POEMS,”
Poetry
106.5 (Aug. 1965): 343.

LN's note on
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964): “Note—what happened to Primavera, Florence, Italy and my visit to Grant Park beside L. Michigan, Milwaukee.”

The park/“a darling walk/for the mind”     T&G, MLBW
[EA].

In a numbered group of
“FIVE POEMS,”
Poetry
106.5 (Aug. 1965): 344.

LN to Jonathan Williams, 19 Feb. 1964: “The one thing that's stark different here—Saarinen's Art Center on the lake shore, huge glass mushroom transported from some Walt Disney desert. Not far from it a park with (a comfortable) statue of Robert Burns” (in
Truck
16 [1975]: 46).

Who was Mary Shelley?      
T&G, MLBW
[EA].

In
Paris Review
9.36 (Winter 1966): 144, but very likely one of three poems accepted by the editor two years earlier in May 1964. However, only
“Art Center”
and “Alcoholic dream” were published in the Summer-Fall 1964 issue while “Who was Mary Shelley?” was delayed until Winter 1966. The following variant lines appear in the
Paris Review
version:

line 4: She eloped with Shelley,

line 10: Created Frankenstein nights

line 14: She read Latin, Greek, Italian.

Meanwhile the poem was revised to the present text for
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964) and
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964).

Wild strawberries         Unpublished in book form.

“HOMEMADE POEMS”
(Oct. 1964):

Ruskin found wild strawberries

and they were a consolation

poor man whose diaries

were grey with instances of rose

I think tonight we'll have the liver

since tomorrow we go out

tho not of course like him

to Metaphysical dinner

following Greco

Copytext for posthumous publication in
BC
(1976).

Revised for
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(Xmas 1964) with variant line 7: not like him