RDI Box 230

Pittstown, N.J.

January 23, 1953

Dear Pat,

I'm afraid your new poems have the same defect as well
as the same virtues (in a more vivid way) as the last ones
you sent me. Since you say that you don't really know what
to do about it, forgive me if I wax pedantic and/or pedagogic,
and suggest as possible methods writing in strict forms such
as sonnets and ballads, even if you have to use nonsense
syllables; or, writing a poem which follows exactly the
accents and word-quantities in the poems by W.C.Williams,
and H.D., if, that is, you feel you have to write free verse;
and reading aloud all your poems listening for a consistent
pattern of sound and changing every syllable that does not
fit the pattern of sound you decided on before beginning; and
reading poems by other poets/in the pattern you have decided
written

to use for a half hour before beginning to work on your own
poem; and asking Arnie or Jane to tell you ruthlessly how
the poem sounds to them. There are lots of other methods,
and sometimes it takes a while (at least nine month, very
often!) before the method gets to part of your nervous system
in the right way. You have everything you need for good poems
except the rhythm.

Hurrah for the baby! I trust it will have all or at
least some of the virtues of James Joyce, Maud Gonne,
Sigmund Freud and Gertrude Stein.

I don't see how I can make it for dinner while I am
on the schedule which keeps going until late in May, for
I can only come to New York on Tuesdays and almost always
have to go back at 5 to avoid exhaustion. But can you and
Arnie come out either for a week-end or on a Sunday? We're
tied up next week-end and the one after that, but the 14th
or 21st of February would be fine, and I think you would
both like the countryside (which is engaged in imitating
Breughel). Please let us know soon if you can get away,
and we'll send you a time-table if you want to come by
train; it's only a little more than hour, from Penn station
to Flemington Junction. If you drive, it's more fun, but
takes longer. If Arnie can only get away on Sunday, then
you would have to take a 10.55 AM train in the morning
and go back at 6.30 which is really not much of a visit.

If you feel like working when you come, we can
go over your poems in detail, and I'll play some of my
records of poets reading poetry, etc.

Do try to come, if you can. Best regards from both
of us to you and Arnie,

Love,