Collecte Works (58 page)

           the leaf beside it

was once stone

The sea went over

Calculate:

our coral bones

I caught myself faintly

in the glass of the museum's

glacier exhibit

XII

I'm sorry to have missed

            Sandy Lake

My dear one tells me

            we did not

We watched a gopher there

The segment beginning “And at the blue ice superior spot,” was published in
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968) in an early grouping of
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS.”
It was later added to the final version of
“LAKE SUPERIOR.”

LN prepared an errata slip for copies of
NC:

ERRATA

The Lake Superior section:

Beauty: impurities in the rock

should be the 3rd line of the poem preceding.

The Marquette poem then begins:

And at the blue ice superior spot

EA excerpts three sections from
“LAKE SUPERIOR”:
“And at the blue ice superior spot,” “
Wild Pigeon,”
and “The smooth black stone.”

My Life by Water     NC, MLBW
[EA].

Untitled in
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 55, and EA. In
Origin
it is part of a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE.”

Titled in
New Poetry Out of Wisconsin
, ed. August Derleth (Sauk City, Wis.: Stanton & Lee, 1969) 173.

TRACES OF LIVING THINGS

The subtitle, “strange feeling of sequence,” is Fulcrum Press publisher Stuart Montgomery's observation. An earlier group of
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS”
in
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 39-42, included “Museum,” “At the blue ice superior spot” (subsequently moved into
“LAKE SUPERIOR”),
“TV,” “Far reach,” “Years,” “Unsurpassed in beauty,” “Human bean,” “High class human,” “What cause have you,” and “Stone.”

Museum     NC, MLBW.

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 39.

Far reach      
NC, MLBW.

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 40.

TV NC, MLBW.

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 40.

We are what the seas      
NC, MLBW
[EA, VV].

In a numbered group of
“FOUR POEMS,”
Poetry
111.3 (Dec. 1967): 159.

What cause have you      
NC, MLBW
[EA].

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 42.

Stone      
NC, MLBW.

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 42.

The eye      
NC, MLBW
[EA].

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 37, with a second and third stanza:

leaf feather

fin fugue

modify—

renewed

union of two

in love—we—

with the same

sure thing

to end

when one sees

new truething,

Love

For best work      
NC, MLBW
[EA].

Included in
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
and
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(1964) (see p. 210).

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 22, and
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).

Smile
     
NC, MLBW
[EA].

In a numbered group of
“FOUR POEMS,”
Poetry
111.3 (Dec. 1967): 160, and
The Voice That Is Great Within Us: American Poetry of the 20th Century
, ed. Hayden Carruth (New York: Bantam, 1970).

Fall
     (“We must pull”)      
NC, MLBW.

In a numbered group of
“FOUR POEMS,”
Poetry
111.3 (Dec. 1967): 159.

Years      
NC, MLBW
[EA].

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 40.

Unsurpassed in beauty      
NC, MLBW
[EA].

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 41.

Human bean      
NC, MLBW.

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 41.

High class human      
NC, MLBW.

In an alternate group titled
“TRACES OF LIVING THINGS,”
Origin
ser. 3, 9 (April 1968): 41.

Ah your face      
NC, MLBW
[EA,VV].

Included in
“HOMEMADE POEMS”
and
“HANDMADE POEMS”
(1964) (see p.200).

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 20.

Sewing a dress     NC, MLBW
[EA,VV].

Origin
ser. 3, 2 (July 1966): 30.

I walked/on New Year's Day      
NC, MLBW
[EA].

In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 57, with a variant final stanza: Each spoke:/Peace

Titled
“I Walked”
in
New Poetry Out of Wisconsin
, ed. August Derleth (Sauk City, Wis.: Stanton & Lee, 1967) 172.

J. F. Kennedy after/the Bay of Pigs      NC, MLBW
[EA].

An undated MS in the Roub Collection has variant lines 5-6:—and walk the South Lawn/By Sun

Revised to the present text for a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 53.

LN to LZ, May 10, 1961: “I can't get over Cuba invasion and J.F.K.
with
the Republicans—that it turned out unsuccessful seems beside the point (
NCZ
281).

Mergansers      
NC, MLBW.

In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 54, with variant lines 4-5:

Thoughts, things

fold, unfold

“Shelter”      NC, MLBW
[EA].

In a group of eleven poems titled
“HEAR & SEE,”
Origin
ser. 3, 7 (Oct. 1967): 56.

Also in
New Poetry Out of Wisconsin
, ed. August Derleth (Sauk City, Wis.: Stanton & Lee, 1967) 172.

WINTERGREEN RIDGE
      
NC, MLBW
[EA,VV].

Caterpillar
3/4 (April-July 1968): 229-37, with the following variant stanzas:

stanza 67:

(wintergreen)

        grass of parnassus

               And beyond:

stanza 73: “in a bathtub…in liver and head” is omitted.

stanza 86:

which ‘cannot be stopped’

        the pollened ragweed

               sneezeweed

stanza 91:

mourn the loss

        of humans

               no wild bird does

VV uses the following excerpts: stanzas 1-2 (“Where the arrows…of matter”), stanzas 68-70 (“ferns…water lily”), and stanzas 84-end (“So far out of flowers…of Equinox”).

1968-1970

T&G: The Collected Poems (1936-1966)
was published by Jonathan Williams's The Jargon Society in 1969. In June 1969, LN responded to CC's offer to publish a book by preparing two typescripts: “The Earth and Its Atmosphere” and “The Very Veery.” Al Millen retired, and in Sept. 1969, LN and Al moved permanently to their Black Hawk Island home. CC and his wife, Shizumi, visited LN and Al in Nov. 1970.

PAEAN TO PLACE
         
MLBW
[EA, VV].

A draft dated August 1968 in the Roub Collection shows the following variants:

stanza 1, lines 1-3:

F natural

and the sensuous s

Fish, fowl, flood

stanza 10, line 5: rail's

stanza 12, line 5: Knew duckweed

stanza 13, line 3: what lay

stanza 15, lines 4-5:

       Underneath he must net Run

Lonely

stanza 16:

His bright new car—

my mother—her house

       next his—queried:

       Can a hummingbird

haul?

stanza 25, line 4: while she piped

stanza 30, line 1: Effort in us

stanza 31, lines 2-4:

that freely descend

      to oceans' black depths

      In us an impulse toward

stanza 33, lines 3-4:

                Saw no snake

in the house    Where were They?—

stanza 35, lines 3-4:

Hope the long-stemmed blue

  speedwell renews

stanza 37, lines 3-5:

           Leave things unbought—

           all one in the end

Possession—

stanza 38, line 2: the word:

stanza 40, lines 3-5:

It was not always

so In Fishes

rose

stanza 41, lines 1-3:

red Mars

stream-imaged

      in my mind

Stony Brook
3/4 (1969): 32-35.
Stony Brook
and
MLBW
omit the three bullets in the segment beginning “I grew in green” between “slime-/song” and “Grew riding the river.” They are present in the two MS versions and in EA.

VV uses the following excerpts: “Fish/fowl/flood…to water,” “Anchored here…of her hair,’” and “On this stream…on the edge.”

Alliance      MLBW
[EA,VV].

An undated MS in the Roub Collection has a variant line 6: in yukka

Revised to the present text for
Stony Brook
3/4 (1969): 31, and all other appearances.

Bash
       Unpublished [VV].

Related to the poem above,
“Alliance.”

The man of law         Unpublished in book form [EA].

The second of four
“POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE”
in
Stony Brook
3/4 (1969): 32. Another version of the poem—an undated MS in the Roub Collection—published posthumously in
Origin
ser. 4, 16 (July 1981): 36:

Jefferson—statesman

           Hopkins—poet

                      on the uses

                                 of grief

Hopkins

           Jefferson

                      on the law

                                 of the oak leaf

Not all harsh sounds displease—      Unpublished in book form.

The third of four
“POEMS AT THE PORTHOLE”
in
Stony Brook
3/4 (1969): 32.

Another version of the poem, an undated MS in the Roub Collection, was published posthumously in
Origin
ser. 4, 16 (July 1981): 36:

Not all harsh sounds

       displease—

Yellowhead blackbirds cough

            thru rushes

as thru pronged

                     bronze

JEFFERSON AND ADAMS
       Unpublished.

MS dated Jan. 1970 in the Roub Collection, published posthumously in
Origin
ser. 4, 16 (July 1981): 26-27.

Katharine Anne
       Unpublished.

MS dated March 1970 in the Roub Collection, published posthumously in
Origin
ser. 4, 16 (July 1981): 34.

A gift to Gail and Bonnie Roub on the birth of their first daughter.

War
       Unpublished in book form.

Origin
ser. 3, 19 (Oct. 1970): 53, and posthumously in
BC
(1976).

HARPSICHORD & SALT FISH

LN prepared the typescript of H&SF in 1970 and sent it to James Laughlin at New Directions without success. It was unpublished at the time of her death on Dec. 31, 1970. Cid Corman tape recorded her reading from the typescript in Nov. 1970; his transcriptions of the tape recording provide the text for many of the poems in
Blue Chicory.
H&SF was published posthumously by Pig Press in Durham, U.K., 1991.

THOMAS JEFFERSON
       Unpublished in book form [VV, H&SF].

An early undated MS appears in the Roub Collection:

Latin and Greek

my tools

to understand

humanity

I rode horse

away from a monarch

to an enchanting

philosophy

1

Martha!

She's seen four

of our children buried

My wife is ill!

and I sit

waiting for a quorum

2

Fast ride

his horse collapsed

Now
he
saddled walked

Borrowed a farmer's

unbroken colt

to Richmond

Richmond How stop

Arnold's