2

October 8, 1960

Dear Mr. Abrams:

Please forgive my long delay in writing
you about the poems you were so kind as
to allow me to read. I submitted—with
selections from some 50 other poets—to
the proposed publishers of NEW NEGRO POETS,
these of yours:

"I DO NOT WANT TO TURN AWAY"
"FOR MY UNBORN SON"

University presses are notoriously slow in
making up their minds. But the book is
still under consideration. However the
editorial opinion seems to be to limit
it to perhaps a dozen or so of those poets
already blessed by publication in the little
magazines—VOICES, NAKED EYE, YUNGEN, PARIS
REVIEW, POETRY, etc., mor or less of the
"avant guarde" school. In any case, I'd
like to keep your poems listed above in my
files in case another source of publication
opens up. And thanks a lot for the pleasure
I got from reading them.

With cordial regards,

P. S. I hope you don't mind my taking these
out of contest, but they are beautiful
as individual poems. Some of your others
are too long for a small anthology such
as this one intends to be.