In the interest of discussing something I think of often, I need to say I don't see this poem coming from the head. I can feel it flying out of the imagination with a wildness that doesn't come from thinking or pondering. I'm the guy that it was said I "baffled" people here when I said I don't start what turns out to be my best poems with an idea. I can't do it. There is more to do once it springs free, but it isn't calculated. My poems are mistake babies, not a planned family. I see that force in this poem. I can't envision Cam calculating this. I think he is deeply knowledgeable about a wide array of literature and the "Happy Day" allusion and others flew into his head. There is too much force here to be calculated at its birth.
It reminds me that Wallace Stevens said his best poems were the ones that flew into his ear. Anyone who reads Stevens knows how much work he did on them after they went from ear to paper, but he said they appeared first. It is often said his poems are too cerebral but he said that wasn't his process. This poem reads to me as though went through the same process.
Cam, now it's time to tell us.
*Again, this isn't a challenge or snark. I'm curious how other poets begin poems and accept I may be full of it. It wouldn't be the first time.
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