A fascinating window into the great poet in the final year of his life, doling out philosophy, talking about his life, and reading some of his work to rapt audiences. God-fearing and unabashedly pro-America, yet with such a gentle, humane way about him, even when he mentions that Ezra Pound should have been shot for treason for his fascist activities in Italy during the war.
A couple of quotes: "Some people like to think it starts with a phrase or something; I think it starts with a mood. As Poe said somewhere, you know, he never - he wrote lots of prose and he had a hard life and died at 40, the poor boy. But he said he never touched the poetry, except when, you know, with something - "the sacred touch." And that's a strong word for it, but that feeling that you could never do it unless you - never do it to pay a bill, because you probably won't."
"You know, I've often said that every poem solves something for me in life. I go so far as to say that every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world. But of course, any psychiatrist will tell you that so is making a basket, or making a horseshoe, or - giving anything form gives you a confidence in the universe that it has form, see? When you talk about your troubles and go to somebody about them, you're just fool, you know the best way to settle them is to make something that has form..."
A couple of quotes: "Some people like to think it starts with a phrase or something; I think it starts with a mood. As Poe said somewhere, you know, he never - he wrote lots of prose and he had a hard life and died at 40, the poor boy. But he said he never touched the poetry, except when, you know, with something - "the sacred touch." And that's a strong word for it, but that feeling that you could never do it unless you - never do it to pay a bill, because you probably won't."
"You know, I've often said that every poem solves something for me in life. I go so far as to say that every poem is a momentary stay against the confusion of the world. But of course, any psychiatrist will tell you that so is making a basket, or making a horseshoe, or - giving anything form gives you a confidence in the universe that it has form, see? When you talk about your troubles and go to somebody about them, you're just fool, you know the best way to settle them is to make something that has form..."