Ah, darling David Ahh! I thought of you dearly yesterday as we drove through San Francisco, wishing I had time to call you, to talk.
I don't ask that anyone like him. But I wish I had just one hour with ANYONE to try to show you what he meant/means to me. I have such stories!
I don't ask that you like him. But in a list like this, to leave Lawrence out would be a travesty. He is a MEGALITH of the 20th century, whether any of us like it or not.
Let me quote you a moment from Kenneth Rexroth's introduction to Lawrence's Selected:
"Hardy was a major poet. Lawrence was a minor prophet. Like Blake and Yeats, his is the greater tradition."
I have a feeling I have not written the last of Lawrence. There is a REASON, and an UNreason, AHhh, why someone you like, like Hoagland, feels as he does about D. H. Lawrence.
No-one has to like him. But no-one should spit on him. His place in our literature, and the venom and condescension he inspires continue to astound me. I cannot imagine what my life would have been if I had not found him.
As I said to Gypsy Boy, let's talk, you and me, if you like.
Cal
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