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Fotini Masika's avatar

Your poem for Conrad Aiken is utterly beautiful, Dick!

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Dick Whyte's avatar

Awww thanks so much 💜 means a lot

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Kim Nelson's avatar

un

consciously

connective

So much. So little. Ideal.

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Dick Whyte's avatar

Thanks so much Kim - that last little bit took the most time to get right so I am really glad it resonated. 💜

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LeeAnn Pickrell's avatar

I love how each stanza of your poem speaks to one of Aiken's poems.

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Dick Whyte's avatar

Omg - I genuinely hadn't noticed - but you're so right! It's really obvious haha. My poetry brain outthinks me every time. Thanks so much for noticing! 💜

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LeeAnn Pickrell's avatar

Isn’t that great when that happens and someone points it out?

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Dick Whyte's avatar

Absolutely! 😊

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Maria (Linnesby essays)'s avatar

I’ve always loved Aiken’s Rimbaud and Verlaine poem, which I came across first in some anthology or other.

The poem about the graveyard here is especially resonant when one knows that his own childhood had unimaginable loss in it.

Thanks for all of these, by the way! Didn’t realize I hadn’t subscribed to the Substack — have fixed that now — and so am catching up on a bunch of them at once.

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Aug 14
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Dick Whyte's avatar

Yeah Aiken writes bangers alright! It’s amazing to me how little of the poetry from the early-1900s in general has been fully appreciated and/or collected - and Aiken is right up there. Cheers for the wonderful comment! Will check out those longer works some time as well. 💜

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