NOTE ON PUBLICATIONS

With regards to publication, what has been most personally sustaining over the years is William Blake’s adage, “If the fool would persist in his folly he would become wise.”  This flashes neon in the sky as continual inspiration to continue writing whatever poems are blessedly given, even if few of them see the light of day in print. The example of Blake’s furious energy to pursue his vision is always a call to concentrate on the most important aspect of continuing to write poetry day after day and year after year until there are shelves of bursting manuscripts singing themselves to sleep: constantly renewed expansion and increase, praising the truth for God’s sake, fashioning a consistent body of work as a strong legacy to stand on even after ultimate horizontality has set in, maintaining heart’s receptivity and mind’s openness and a soulful tongue’s skillful agility. In all of these, as even Rimbaud said, compassionate intention is the key, and Mevlana Rumi of Konya is in this the model most worthy of imitation.