From: Ruth I Gordon <druthgo>
Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 18:55:06 -0800

Mes amies: At the risque of being tagged as "an olde pharte" (or at least a late middle aged one), may I repeat:

Edgar A. Guest and others of his ilk are not exactly Kenneth Rexroth, Kenneth Patchen, e.e. cummings, Richard Wilbur, Rainer Marie Rilke, Paul Verlaine, W.B. Yeats, etc., etc. et alii. So--poets of a lesser imagistic skill may very well need illustrators to depict their little poesies. All of the aforesaid should, mayhaps, cause a mite of cogitation.

I am very well aware that many of the poesies for the young would NOT be published without illustration to flesh out little verses. And no, R.L.S., Celia Thatcher (sp? ), Natalie Worth, the Psalms, do not need illusrations because their words convey many images. However, lesser rhymsters, makers of trite images do. What a pity--a loss- that it has been assumed that the young cannot be picture makers. They can do so--and have done so in my experience.

I feel sorry for the little child who could not make her own pictures of Frost's "Stopping By Woods." Perhaps the time had not come for her to see the quiet journey.

We should never rush that which we love but allow it to wait and, when the right time arrives, let it ferment in the mind. Otherwise, we will be left with a nation of little Dick Nixons--or George W. Bush-types.

So...there.

Ruth--among the alien corn

"You may not be able to change the world, but at least you can embarrass the guilty." Jessica Mitford (191796)
Received on Fri 25 Apr 2003 09:55:06 PM CDT