Right now instead of looking for "great poems" I'm looking for poetry which emanates poetic energy.
1) a piece of writing
2)later: what were the attitude and character of the person writing it?
3) later: why that investigation?
A piece of writing which represents all the things that stop me- these are not all the things but the piece of paper represents the feeling of "moving" or taking control over those things. Now the writing comes to represent that piece of paper.

Allowing the manuscripts to get all mixed in together= shuffling the deck for a "reading"

Endless preparations for "a reading" (=Tarot or tea leaves reading)

The poems I am collecting seem to be ones I've thought about or want to think about (!). A poem as a crystal ball- some "thing" around which imaginings can be "seen" and "heard."

"Items of intrinsic value."

I take measure and leap into the pool of ideas- a tune emerges in memory. Imagining: even if I could not do it yet, take the pieces that fit in (these are detail) and imagine (create) the rest.

"I don't want to think about it, but I'd like to have a record of it."

To have control over the attentional faculty, to concentrate and then break away and then be able to return to the concentrated state- an ideal of some degree of comfort under stressful conditions.

(4/15/87)