“Of course a poem is a two-way street. No poem is any good if it doesn't suggest to the reader things from his own mind and recollection that he will read into it, and will add to what the poet has suggested.” – James Laughlin
Laughlin, born on this date in 1914, was founder of New Directions Publishing and author of more than 1,200 poems, most focused on everyday experiences, love, and life.
The Academy of American Poets honors Laughlin’s memory through its annual “James Laughlin Award” in support of an author’s “second” book of poetry. For Saturday’s Poem, exerpted from The Collected Poems of James Laughlin, here is,
What The Pencil Writes
Often when I go out I
put in my coat pocket
some paper and a pencil
in case I want to
write something down
well there they are
wherever I go and as
my coat moves the pencil
writes by itself
a kind of gibberish
hieroglyphic which I
often think as I undress
at night & take
out those papers with
nothing written on
them but strange and
meaningless marks is
the story of my life.
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