Authors: Lorine Niedecker
LN to LZ, March 23, 1956: “got started on a poem about my mother—this is her birthday and the snow and Marcus Aurelius and my overloaded loneliness and it's a temptation to write like Yeats, a kind of mellifluous, lush overloading (kind of folk element in it tho at that) but I must not” (
NCZ
227).
The graves T&G, MLBW
[FPOP, EA, VV].
Early MS dated 1945:
The Graves and the Other Woman
You were my mother, peony bush,
you worried over life's raw push.
But you, my father, catalpa tree,
were as serene as now—he refused to see
that the woman he shaded hotly cared
for his purse petals falling—his mind in the air.
Revised to the present text for FPOP.
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 29.
See preceding note, for
“Mother is dead.”
Kepler
Unpublished in book form [FPOP].
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 29.
See note above for
“Mother is dead.”
Bonpland
Unpublished [FPOP].
Happy New Year
T&G, MLBW
[FPOP].
MS dated Jan. 4, 1951, has variant lines 6-10:
My friend, two thousand years
beyond you
I hand you this:
you were right.
Happy New Year
LN's annotation: “Happy New Year—as I hear it sung there is slight pause after bitter and so winter brotherhood comes together—these phrases that look forward and back are fascinating to do but I suppose there's a limit. Trees could have apostrophe after it. What started the whole thing aside from ‘better than bitter’ was an inversion: ‘with sorrow clean’ Silly? We still get our deepest feeling of beauty from old trad. lit.”
The MS carries LZ's suggested changes to the above lines 6-10.
A later MS dated Jan. 12, 1951, adopts his suggestions:
My friend, you were right.
Two thousand years
beyond you
I hand you this:
LN's annotations: “Would hyphens in ‘bloom with snow’ make it less trite? or snowbloom? (kind of effeminate).”
Both MSS are numbered XVI of
“FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO”
and both merge the present stanzas 1 and 2. The poem “Happy New Year” becomes poem XIX in
“FOR PAUL: GROUP TWO,”
New Mexico Quarterly
21.2 (Spring 1951): 211, which also merges stanzas 1 and 2.
Revised to the present text for FPOP.
MLBW
hyphenates “snow-/clean” (lines 10-11).
1957-1959
In Feb. 1957 LN began a menial job at the Fort Atkinson Memorial Hospital; she would retire in Nov. 1963.
Between 1957 and 1959, her five-line stanza with its rhyming third and fourth lines predominates: “did I create a new form…influence of haiku I suppose…” (
NCZ
230). These “five-liners” first occur during the
“FOR PAUL”
project: the 1950 “Lugubre for a child,” and the 1956 “July, waxwings,” “People, people,” and “Old man who seined.” They are next seen in MS in 1957 and 1958.
In
T&G
and
MLBW
she grouped many of these five-liners (most of which are single-stanza poems) in a section titled
“IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU.”
The title is first used in
Neon
4 (1959): n.p., where it groups five poems: “July, the waxwings,” “Old man who seined” (two stanzas), “People, people,” “Linnaeus in Lapland” (two stanzas), “Fog-thick morning.” Another selection of five-liners appears numbered but untitled in
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 27—“Hear,” “Springtime's wide,” “How white the gulls,” “My friend tree,” and “New-sawed.” EA names a group of 13 poems
“IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU”;
two of these are “The soil is poor” and “Michelangelo,” poems which are subsequently grouped with
“POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE”
in H&SF (see pp. 286-87). One of the prominent five-liners of the period, “My friend tree,” the title poem of the 1961 volume published by Ian Hamilton Finlay's Wild Hawthorn Press in Edinburgh, Scotland, is not grouped with
“IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU”
in
T&G
and
MLBW
, but rather with the folk poems.
Linnaeus in Lapland T&G, MLBW
[EA].
MS dated 1957 includes “Fog-thick morning.”
In a five-poem group titled,
“IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU,”
Neon
4 (1959): n.p.
Also in
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse.
1 (undated, probably March 1962): n.p., with “I rose from marsh mud” and in
“EIGHT POEMS,”
Monks Pond
1 (Spring 1968): 5.
Fog-thick morning— Unpublished in book form.
MS dated 1957 includes “Linnaeus in Lapland.”
In a five-poem group titled
“IN EXCHANGE FOR HAIKU,”
Neon
4 (1959): n.p.
Hear
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 27; one of five numbered poems.
Cricket-song— Unpublished.
MS dated 1957 and perhaps sent to LZ with her Sept. 2, 1957, letter: “when I suddenly came on the review of
Some Time
in
The Times Book Review
I was moved to write a pome and I diddit—two stanzys of my 5 liners” (
NCZ
238).
The poem appears again on the MS dated Jan. 1958, one of 13 poems (all “five-liners”).
Musical Toys
Unpublished.
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
I fear this war Unpublished.
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
Van Gogh could see Unpublished.
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
No matter where you are Unpublished.
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
How white the gulls
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 27; one of five numbered poems.
Springtime's wide
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958, variant lines 1-2:
Springtime's
Wide water-
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 27—one of five numbered poems.
White Unpublished.
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
Dusk—
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958:
In spring when the small fish spawn
goes a boat along shore—
someone scything grass?
Slippery
Man.
Revised for MS dated June 8, 1962, published in “5
POEMS,”
Origin
ser. 2, 8 (Jan. 1963): 27, with one variant from the present text, line 1: Shore-dusk
In
T&G
lines 2 and 3 are reversed:
How slippery is man—
He's spearing from a boat
Revised to the present text (minus the dashes) for
“EIGHT POEMS,”
Monks Pond
1 (Spring 1968): 8.
LN to LZ, Dec. 25, 1957: “she talked of her neighbors and out came this bit—was I listening to Chaucer??—In spring when the small fish spawn—so I've used it for a five-liner” (
NCZ
241-42).
Beautiful girl—
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958, variant lines 1-2:
Beautiful girl
pushes food upon her fork
New-sawed
T&G, MLBW
[EA, VV].
In the 13-poem MS dated Jan. 1958.
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 27; one of five numbered poems.
My friend tree
MFT, T&G, MLBW
[EA, VV].
Sent to Paul Zukofsky with a letter and sketch dated Oct. 15, 1959: “Here is one of the tree workers way up near the top of my big ash tree, one foot on one branch and the other on another branch. Wonderful to watch him. They did it with ropes and a gasoline run saw. $90 well spent. I hail the sun and the moon.…I still have 14 trees on my lawn. But you do have a feeling about destroying a tree” (
LN:W&P
62-63).
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 27; one of five numbered single-stanza poems. Many of the poems in this section were written during LN's friendship from mid-1960 to late 1962 with the Milwaukee dentist Harold Hein. Her second book—the first in 15 years—appeared in 1961 when Ian Hamilton Finlay's Wild Hawthorn Press published
My Friend Tree
, a small collection of 16 poems, 9 of them reprinted from
New Goose
, illustrated with linocuts by Walter Miller, and introduced on a loose-leaf sheet by Ed Dorn. LN offered two alternative titles:
Great Grass!
and
Don't Shoot the Rail.
In May 1963, she married Al Millen, and in Nov. 1963, she was able to retire from her hospital job in Fort Atkinson and move with Al to an apartment in Milwaukee. The last two poems in this section reflect the new geography. LN and Al spent weekends on Black Hawk Island, first in her small cottage and then in their new home, within sight of the cottage but closer to the Rock River and built high to escape the floodwaters.
In Leonardo's light
T&G, MLBW.
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 26.
LN to LZ, Aug. 22, 1960: “Harold [Hein] brought me his notes on Leonardo da Vinci and I was so fascinated I wrote a poem.…Closest to a love poem I ever writ” (
NCZ
265).
You are my friend—
MFT, T&G, MLBW
[EA].
MS dated Sept. 15, 1960:
Why do I press it: are you my friend?
You bring me peaches
and the high bush cranberry
you carry
my fishpole
you water my worms
you patched my boot
with your mending kit
nothing in it
but my hand
The trouble of the boot on you, friend
your dentist fingers
an orchard to mow
you also
paint
Revised to the present text on MS dated Jan. 20, 1961; in
Origin
ser. 2, 2 (July 1961): 31; in
“EIGHT POEMS,”
Monks Pond
1 (Spring 1968): 6; and in
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).
Come In
Unpublished.
Earliest MS dated “Xmas 1960” offers two alternative versions:
(i)
Thanksgiving, Glen Ellyn
Education, kindness
live here
whose dog does not impose
her long nose
and barks quietly.
Serious wags its tail
where green yard is exposed
by white tie-backs.
None here lacks
this outgoing.
(ii)
Education, kindness
live here
Whose grandfolk taught:
work hard,
whose dog does not impose
her long nose
and barks quietly.
Serious wags its tail
where white tie-backs expose
evergreen, green yard.
Hard
is lovely here.
LZ holograph on the above MS notes: “a later version r'cd on Jan. 12/61. Stanza 1 (same as above) and
Serious wags its tail
—little yard exposed
by white tie-backs—
at knick-knacks
like us knocking.”
LZ's “stanza 1 (same as above)” most likely refers to the stanza beginning, “Whose grandfolk taught:”
Revised to the present text for MS dated Jan. 20, 1961.
LN to LZ, Nov. 27, 1960: “Harold took me to his brother Fred's in Glen Ellyn (suburb of Chicago) Thanksgiving day…. Nice house in a section of ranch type and colonial houses,…But show is not the usual thing with the Heins of Glen Ellyn. It's all education, science, teaching, family life. Quiet, well brought up family with three kids, the youngest just entering college. Even the big, beautiful Shepherd-collie barks quiet” (
NCZ
270).
The men leave the car
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
The experience this poem draws on is recorded on July 2, 1961 (
NCZ
282).
Origin
ser. 2, 6 (July 1962): 24.
LN to CC, Feb. 5, 1962: “It strikes me that an editor must wish fervently that his contributors head their poems so that he doesn't have to title all headless poems
POEMS.”
She offers titles of “Calla of the Heart-Shaped Leaves” or simply “Calla” (
BYHM
31).
The wild and wavy event
T&G, MLBW
[EA].
LN to LZ, Dec. 31, 1961: “Trying to do a poem on Abigail Adams—what a gal” (
NCZ
297).
Origin
ser. 2, 6 (July 1962): 25. On Feb. 5, 1962, LN offered CC a title for this poem: “She watched the Battle of Bunker's Hill” (
BYHM
31).
FLORIDA
Unpublished in book form.
MS dated Feb. 18, 1962, with the following variants:
part 1, line 3: his close proximity
part 4, line 5: the pink flamingo
Parts 1 and 4 in
Poor.Old.Tired.Horse
. 4 (undated, probably late 1962): n.p., where they are numbered 1 and 2.
My life is hung up
T&G, MLBW.
MS dated June 8, 1962.
In a group of
“5
POEMS,”
Origin
ser. 2, 8 (Jan. 1963): 26.
Easter T&G, MLBW.
On the MS dated June 8, 1962, and in “5
POEMS,”
Origin
ser. 2, 8 (Jan. 1963): 26, the first three lines read:
Easter
Land
A robin stood by porch
LN's annotation alongside title on MS: “Shd. be: Easter After Flood”.
Get a load
T&G, MLBW.
On the MS dated June 8, 1962, lines 2 and 3 merge into one. On the MS; in “5
POEMS,”
Origin
ser. 2, 8 (Jan. 1963): 26; and in
T&G
, line 5 reads: like freight cars