The Final Beginning (Poets and Artists 12/09)

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National Book Award for Keith Waldrop

It isn't often that a major literary award goes to a poet whose work I've always enjoyed and admired.

Keith Waldrop on the EPC

"Sing fast. Voices fail."

[from Semiramis If I Remember (self-portrait as mask)]

"An uncertain line we walk, the line- ill-marked and slippery-between inhibition and exhibition."

[from The Silhouette of the Bridge (Memory Stand-Ins)]

"(you are more im-
portant to me
than words or
melody)

we will not remember
the word
return"

[from The Locality Principle]