Thanksgiving Is Ruined |
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July 31, 2018
How to read the unsaid
Here is part of the final letter written by British poet J. H. Prynne to his friend, the American poet Charles Olson:
I write this quickly, to get it off before we are launched into the new decade - - new only by that pallid reckoning which nowadays passes as time . . . They tell me that things are uncertain with you at this moment . . . this is just another presence from over the ocean, keeping the gain switched full on, knowing you’ll know how to read exactly what this will not say. Take it all at the right speed, & remember maybe that season is one of the talismans to guide us out of time . . .
(Emphasis supplied)
Prynne signs off:
Keep close to where you belong.
The letter also includes a terrific Whitman quote about the seashore (“the solid marrying the liquid,” etc.), and one (in Latin) from a page of Nicolas de Cusa.
Prynne’s letter was dated 2 days before the end of the 1960s. Olson died less than two weeks later.
The letter is included in this newly published volume.
Bravo to Patrick James Dunagan for calling attention to this remarkable piece of correspondence, in his book review in the current issue of Rain Taxi.
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