Dear David (2)
I’ve been meaning
to thank you so much
for publishing my work
on The Best American Poetry
blog a few months back.
Isn’t it the same old
same old:
well meaning
folk post great feedback,
then with not much
delicacy: “Why restrict poetry
to the sestina? Why work
rework
that old
form? Wouldn’t your poetry
mean
much
more if you didn’t look back?
Back
off. You make the work
much
too hard. Discard what’s old,
just say what you mean,
write unencumbered poetry.”
David, the sestina is my poetry,
its structure is the back
I lean on. What I mean
is, I’ve learned to work
and play the old ‘
strictures with much
pleasure much
of the time. My poetry
is never old-
fashioned, but does hark back
to 12th century work.
It means
so much that you back
me up. Poetry is my work
until I’m old. I mean it.
— Florence Cassen Mayers