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Duncan on Having “a Tongue that is Ready”
Robert Duncan What I call the Divine is what I begin to divine in the poem…. The dream, the dance, the falling-in-love, and the poem seem to me of one kind. A seizure, given to us, overcoming the pose of the ego, commanding us to attend the need, enthralling us in the spell of a form we must achieve.Read More
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A Poet’s Credo
This from Lisa Jarnot‘s biography of Robert Duncan, via Seth Lerer’s review at SFGate: A poet does not serve institutions … for he has one allegiance, to his vision of the good of humanity, and he has one responsibility, to the truth of the human spirit. A compelling statement that puts Duncan in the company of writers like Camus and Hikmet. It explains why his poetry—erudite, archetypal, eccentric—feels nevertheless so grounded.Read More