Monday, July 21, 2008

What Most Hope For

"And maybe for poets of anger, writers of anger, it is that place which has been obliterated or denied us. A place of humaneness. A place of deep intelligence, of reverence for intelligence. The delectable mountain. The place of fellowship. Of music. Of art. Of loving. Not of banality, not of greed. Even though many in their lives may compromise, seeking for this or that prize, this or that honor, in their dream they long for the great and beautiful place.

"Henry James longed for the great and beautiful place. Henry Miller longed for it. I long for it. It's a noble place. And our argument against people like Reagan, like Bush, is that they not so much take it away from us, but that they never even imagined it...they're clueless, and it's this that we are furious about. That and their indifference."

Gerald Stern, interview for The Writer's Chronicle, March/April 2007.

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