[David Rosenthal]

I have no automatic aversion to conceptual art of any kind. But, while I agree there is something endearing about the poem (I think Bill put it well -- "a sweetness"), I don't find it all that compelling or effective.

David R.

[John Whitworth]

You have to remember that Morgenstern (unlike say Mark Rothko) didn't spend his life doing this sort of thing. I am determined you will like this guy

The Moonsheep
The moonsheep stands upon the clearing.
He waits and waits to get his shearing.
The moonsheep.

The moonsheep plucks himself a blade
returning to his alpine glade.
The moonsheep.

The moonsheep murmurs in his dream:
'I am the cosmos' gloomy scheme.'
The moonsheep.

The moonsheep, in the morn, lies dead.
His flesh is white, the sun is red.
The moonsheep.

-- Christian Morgenstern

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

I like the work of this poem appreciator. He raised the poem/visual thingy value for me, led me to look through versions of Morgenstern's Werewolf poem on the web until I found one I really dug. (Like John said, it is important to put this work alongside the rest of the artist's stuff.)
I have no idea where to divide that which the poet brought and that which the appreciator infused but all I can say is the appreciator made we wish to find all those thrums and nightsongs in those scales and I usually hate concrete poems. Should I ever take to pissing in fountains I should like this appreciator as my PR agent.

[Don Jones]

This prating about meaningful absences and silent yelling is a pathetic, at best, abnegation of the potential of human experience and, at worst, a fraud on human consciousness. The number of people who buy this is, thank goodness, negligible. The number of 'intellectuals' and artistic critics who do so, is tragically large. Time and survival will tell as it has always done.

Oh, please, Nigel! "Meaningful absences?" I for my part pointed out several quantifiable attributes to this piece of visual art. Not that therefore you must agree with me but it is hardly the case that my and others’ appreciation of this work is somehow fraudulent, that it induces, for example, “a fraud on human consciousness.” Or perhaps you mean that those who appreciate this work are being duped but don't know it. Which is a gentlemanly way of saying you think we're idiots. Fair enough, if so.

No doubt you and I radically diverge on some aesthetic, perhaps even moral, fronts. I honestly have no rancor towards you, Nigel. However, I take exception to being, by implication, taken as an "intellectual." Both Orwell and John Lukacs have taught me to hate intellectuals. Fair enough also.

How can you declare that this poem is like an abnegation of the potential of human experience? You certainly had an experience looking (not reading) this work of visual art. No?

This poem, mind you, is as old as a Hardy masterpiece. Though you hate it, intelligent people like you who care about poetry and communication can actually enjoy “this kind of thing.” Can I not have this and Hardy too?

Respectfully,

Don

BTW: Rothko did amazing work.