LETTERS BY OTHER
POETS & WRITERS:
Cid Corman ; Jerome E. Thornton ;
John Ashbaugh ; Ruth Wildes Schuler ;
Rosemary C. Wilkinson ; Summer Breeze
1.
A LETTER FROM CID CORMAN
Cid Corman (29 June 1924 – 12 March 2004) was a poet’s poet,
meticulous translator, perfectionist editor (particularly Origin), and internationally
acclaimed haikuist. A superlative critic, he translated works of
Matsuo Basho and Kusano Shimpei.
Letter: 1978: 1
Utano
15th
July 1978
dear Mr
Singh –
thank you
for wanting me to see yr work.
Unfortunately
it isn’t up to the quality I’m looking for.
You will
know – if you have looked at ORIGIN (and you should – if you regard inclusion
in it seriously) – that normally I don’t answer at all – if work is rejected –
and mss. are never returned – in any event.
But I feel
there is genuine effort/feeling in your work and since you probably are
unfamiliar with ORIGIN – my not answering wd be misunderstood.
I hope you
will find other outlets for the work—perhaps nearer home.
Sincerely
Cid
Corman
Editor/ORIGIN
2.
A LETTER FROM JEROME
E. THORNTON
A friend of Lyle Glazier, an African educator, and
contributor to Creative Forum (when I used to edit it), Jerome E. Thornton was Professor at State
University of New York at Albany, New York. He has been well aware of the
horrors of racism experienced by Black students and teachers at predominantly
White colleges and universities. When Lyle Glazier introduced me to him, they talked about the Black students’ battle
with racism in the USA.
LETTER: 1987: 1
Albany,
New York
30 November
1987
Dear Professor Singh:
I am delighted by your request to offer an essay on African
American writers for publication in Creative
Forum. I think it appropriate to send a brief essay (“Eruptions of Funk: Towards A Definition of
Black Literary Criticism”) and bibliography of current titles of African
American novels and poetry anthologies receiving critical attention today. Moreover, I will submit my offerings towards
the end of December, 1987.
Professor Glazier is well. I enjoyed a fine day with him last
week when I travelled to his home in Vermont.
Two of his dear friends from Ankara were with him, along with two others
from Buffalo. I mentioned to him that I
received your letter and he was happy that I would do the writing for Creative Forum.
The material will arrive early January. Again, I am happy to co-operate with your
efforts in furthering the cause of excellent literature.
Sincerely,
Jerome E.
Thornton
3.
A LETTER FROM JOHN ASHBAUGH
I don’t know the whereabouts of John
Ashbaugh now. But I did read one of his
books and interacted with him for some time.
LETTER: 1993: 1
Madison, Wisconsin
53701 U.S.A.
March
21, 1993
Dear Professor Singh,
Your letter has brought back a wealth of strong
memories. I was stationed in Cuddalore,
Tamil Nadu, just fifteen miles south of Pondicherry. I walked the streets of that fair city many
times, befriended first one ashramite and then another, took tea over and again
on a rooftop garden there, visited the then budding Auroville, witnessed a
darshan of the Mother, and discussed the philosophies of Aurobindo and others
as I have understood them. These
memories are closes to my heart, and I wish for the day when I may visit again.
Surely my stay in India was a turning point in my literary
life, as I learned of the ancient writings in Sanskrit and Tamil. The aham
and puram poetry of ancient Tamil, with its interweaving of sets of
symbols connected with particular landscapes and emotions certainly influenced
my thought. Living near the sea, dawn
became an important source of inspiration, and continues to be wherever I am.
Besides traveling throughout Tamil Nadu, I visited
Kerala, the Coorg district of Mysore, Goa, the ancient city of Hampi, Tirupati
in Andhra, and Hyderabad. I traveled
through the Bastar district of Madhya
Pradesh, and went north to the Kulu valley of Himachal Pradesh. I took the trek up the Kaligandaki river valley
from Pokhara to Jomsom in Nepal, a most memorable experience. I also visited Agra, Delhi, Varanasi, Patna,
and Calcutta.
I became very interested in Tibetan culture,
particularly the art of the mandala, and the imagery of Tara. I am a great lover of the Baratya Natyam
dance, as well as of the Indian classical music of both North and South.
Your commentary on my work conveys an extremely
sensitive and insightful talent for
literary criticism and analysis. You
have seen in what I have written what I was trying to put into it. Through your observations, I have a sense of accomplishment, that I have been able
to communicate my feelings. Clearly
there is a fortuitous meeting of spirits here and I look forward to what may
develop.
I am not so gifted and trained with the methods,
talents and vocabulary of literary criticism as yourself. Nevertheless, I can say that the imagery and
feeling in your poetry peak clearly to my own heart.
For the time being, as the seed of a new friendship is
planted, I am truly your friend in poetry.
John
Ashbaugh
4.
LETTERS FROM RUTH WILDES SCHULER
A long time friend, Ruth Wildes Schuler is a competent poet, writer
and editor. We frequently exchanged our views and greetings. For a long time she edited and
published PROPHETIC VOICES from Novato,
California. She generously gave room to my poems in her journal and supported
my creativity always.
Letters: 1993 : 1 – 3
1.
September 10.
1993
Dear Dr. R.K. Singh,
I share your suffering about the state in Croatia and
Bosnia. Such cruelty is beyond my
understanding. It is just like the Nazis all over again. Man has learnt nothing.
I can understand your fears about India. The religious hatred there is frightening. The Hindu and
Muslim hate each other and hate the Sikhs in turn. Will we ever have a real brotherhood among
men?
I don’t know how America can stop what the Serbs are
doing when they refuse to co-operate.
The world had to go to war to stop the Nazis , as they were monsters
without reason. I fear the same is true
of the power hungry militant Serbs who continue with their torture, rape and
murder.
I agree that politicians and power-hungry people have ruined the world,
and women have too long been the victims in most cultures. I know the Baha’is
believe in the equality of the sexes. I used to correspond with Roger White who
worked many years in the Baha’i publishing house in Israel. He sent me some books and wrote many poems
about the Baha’i Faith, but he died recently of lung cancer. Dr. Hugh McKinley in England was recently
converted to the Baha’i faith. Though he
is well educated, he is forced to sell products door to door to survive during
the economic crises in his country. He
says he accepts this though, as he is able to do missionary work for the Baha’i
faith with this job.
I and all of my family suffer terrible allergies too.
I live on allergy medicines. However, I
am fortunate that the air in my area is pretty good as there is no heavy industry
here. I refused to move into a polluted
area when we were searching for a home.
Last night I saw a documentary on the oil fire in Kuwait, and it said
those fires polluted the skies as far away as India.
I hope that you will be able to find a job elsewhere. Many of our big cities
like Los Angeles are extremely polluted . Central and Southern Europe and China
are very badly polluted also. And then
there is Chernobyl.
We took a sort trip to the Mediterranean area but I
returned ill. Among other things, I picked up a terrible fungus infection which
has covered part of my body. It is being
treated, and eventually I will be cured.
Upon my return, I found a mountain of mail and it will
be some time before I can even begin the next PV. Thank you for your kind
letter. I hope so much that things will get better for you soon.
Best
wishes
Ruth
Wildes Schuler
2.
December
4, 1999
Dear R.K. Singh,
Besides reading the Bristol Banner 1999 Anthology of
short stories, I read J.K. Rowling’s HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE,
which I borrowed from my grandson, William.
Since Rowling’s three books have been at the top of the best seller
lists for so long, I thought it would be interesting to see what their appeal
was. I can see their attraction for
children, especially young boys. They
are not anything I could ever write because I have never been interested in
wizards, dragons and magic. She also has
a game in it which would appeal especially to boys. It is called Quidditch, which the children
attending the wizard school play on broomsticks up in the sky. It much like hockey played on the
ground. Not being that fond of games
myself, I found it boring to read, but it would not be to most children. I think she found a real market in the wizard
theme. I bet there will be many copiers soon.
Another agent wrote that he would read my manuscript
but wants $175 for a handling fee for a 6 months period. I perhaps could scrape up the money if I felt
he really would try to market my novel.
However the last agent did nothing, so I feel pretty discouraged. After
the holidays I will try writing more letters to agents or publishers but right now I am so far behind in
everything. I have not even started the cleaning to put up our tree and
Christmas decorations.
Last night on the history channel they had a 2-hour
special on Custer’s Last Stand from the viewpoint of the US Indian Scouts. The material was gathered by the famous
photographer Curtis and he presented the data to Theodore Roosevelt. But like today, it was covered up as
Roosevelt did not want to tear down Custer who had become an American
icon. The Indian scouts claimed that
Custer stood upon a hill about 6 minutes away from where General Reno was
battling thousands of Indians and he watched while the Indians slaughtered his
men without making any attempt to go to their aid. No one can explain why he did this. The military people feel if he had gone to
Reno’s aid, he could had routed the Indians who were not yet organized at that
point and he might have won the battle. For certain it would not have been the
wholesale slaughter that it turned out to be.
Of course if Custer had waited originally for the troops coming from two
other states, there probably would have been very few deaths as the soldiers
would have out-numbered the Indians so.
However Custer was such an egoist that he wanted to claim all the glory
for himself—that he, by himself defeated
all the Indians in the last great battle of this county!
December 10, 1999
In spite of all the medications, my blood pressure
continues to be high. It is genetic but
very frustrating.
I am so far behind in everything this year. I still haven’t been able to clean yet to put
up our Christmas tree.
Our nephew with the Thai wife just became the father
of a second baby boy. The first child’s
name is Owen and the new one is Marcel.
My nephew says they have to pick names that his wife’s family can
pronounce as no Thai can say Kevin. I
don’t know why.
I have been ill with one thing after another. This week I have terrible chest pains and my
left arm is numb. Added to that I have
my first cold of this year and am miserable.
I am sorry about the damage from the cyclones in
India. The last earthquake pulled our
bookcase out from the wall. It is
dangerous as it is, but will require major carpentry work to repair so we will have to wait. From the previous earthquake to that one, we
have a big crack in the wall running down our family room and also another on
our staircase. Eventually we will have
to have plastering and painting but do not have the money for any of this
now. During the real big earthquake
years ago we had thousands of dollars damage to our house and it took years to
repair everything. Nature can really be
spiteful at times. On the East coast in
September there was major damage from a hurricane.
We are into our rainy season now and it is cold.
Congratulations on your prize winning Haiku.
Ah on the subject of critics! A famous person once
wrote—“Those that can write, do write. Those that cannot become critics! I have always found it best to ignore
critics. After all it is just one
person. People who know the excellence
of your work are not going to pay attention to a bad review. They are annoying to read, but I would never
lower myself to respond to any criticism of my work or that in my
magazine. Literature should stand on its
own merit and your work does!
I never knew Ikkoku san but I am sorry to hear of his
death.
No, I do not receive POET.
Most of the magazines that I used to publish my work
in have folded either due to an editor’s death, illness or a lack of finances
to continue. Like you I find all
publishers want subsidy which I do not have either. I was going to have a
collection of my short stories published and the publisher now wants twice what
originally was sated, so I will have to withdraw my manuscript. I have had no luck with my Russian novel either. Many agents will no longer handle fiction
because they say people get their fiction on the television these days.
Happy Holidays! Love,
Ruth
3.
March
29, 2005
Dear Dr. R.K. Singh,
Thank you so much for your letter and beautiful photo.
It was so nice hearing from you again.
In regard to my poetry book, I did the lay out, typing
and paste-up myself and just had the printer run it off on the copy machine and
stable it. It would have been too
expensive to have them do all the work,
and fortunately I learned how to do a lot because of my years of doing
PROPHETIC VOICES.
Actually I wanted to put an oriental photo on the
cover, but I found almost all those I
had of China were in black and white, as that is what I took at the time, so I
could use them for the magazine, as I didn’t have a color computer or printer. My printer never had a color printer before
either, but now the one I had retired and sold his business, and the new owner
bought a color copy machine. So for the
first time, I was able to do a cover in color. Since I loved that photo of my
cat with the hat, I decided to use it.
In regard to the tsunami, I read on the computer that
there would be many more earthquakes in the region of Indonesia and some would
probably cause more tsunamis, although they might go in different
directions. I would not like to live
anywhere near that area now.
I have given up on Giovanni Campisi. I think he has either died or become
incapacitated, or else just folded his publishing. If the last though, you think he would have
informed us and returned our manuscripts.
Unfortunately that is not the case.
I did not know Kazuo, but I am sorry to hear of his
death. Too many of our fine pets are
dying. I miss them all.
Congratulations on your new books coming out.
I have made no further progress on my large poetry
collection of writers, artists and musicians due to not being able to use my
new computer properly yet. It is so difficult. My other one was so much
simpler, but collapsed, and the parts for it were no longer available, so I
lost 12 years of work, as it is not compatible with any of the new computers.
All the medications that I take keep me awake
also. I am afraid to stop them
though, as they said I would have a
stroke or heart attack. Such are the
burdens of old age.
I hope that your health improves.
Love,
Ruth Wildes
Schuler
5.
A LETTER FROM ROSEMARY
C. WILKINSON
Rosemary Wilkinson was a poet with international presence as Secretary General, World Congress of
Poets/World Academy of Arts and Culture at Buckeye Court, Placerville, CA 95667, USA. She too supported my creativity
and shared her poems and books with me from time to time.
Letter: 1990: 1
April
17, 1990
Dear Dr. Singh:
Thank you for your book titled FLIGHT OF PHOENIX. I have been away for 4 weeks and leaving in 2
week for another 3 weeks. So I hasten to
answer in between all this.
Thank you for sending my poems on to Dr. Laxmi Narayan
Mahapatra, Editor of Poetry Time. I
am honored to be recommended to him and thank you for this singular blessing.
We meet in Istanbul Sept. 16-20 and hope to see many poets from India. Invitations go out in mid-May.
You truly express your soulful intentions in No.3:
A poem is
madness
unique fascination
liberating language
re-creates, resymbolises
disfiguring the known
secured norms
inverting the safe
existence
It is as the critics say: “The poet sees the world as an extension
of himself—his flesh and blood. It is
this outlook on life which enables him to endow the most unpoetic subjects with
some poetic quality.”
That says it all for you, truly. You have the unique gift to dissect others’
works.
With respect,
Rosemary C. Wilkinson, Sec. Gen.
6.
A LETTER
FROM SUMMER BREEZE
Summer Breeze, editor Moongate Internationale, has
been publishing poetry since 1988. She is now retired. “She works by candle
light with her computer, having an aversion for electric light. She sees a
world dream in which individuals contribute to an overall healing effort by
living a low impact life style and
sharing. Her Mother Bird Books
has published over 200 poets and novelists.
Some of my poems and other writings have appeared in Moongate
at artvilla.com
LETTER: 2000: 1
10 October 2000
Dear R.K.,
It was good to hear
from you again and receive your new poems.
I have published two of them on Moongate. Glad to hear you were able to
access your page on a computer. Sorry
that you don’t have access to the internet as there is such a world of
information there for all.
Sorry for the long delay in responding to your letter. My finances are such that I no longer have
the funds to send regular mail. I’ve had
to wait for my monthly social security check to even have the postage to mail
this letter. I’m sorry for this change
in my finances and I hope you will be able to find a way to email me your
poetry.
Of course I will always consider your poetry when you send by regular mail but forgive me for not being
able to write you back.
By the way, I did receive poems from two people you’ve told
to send me poetry but they did not
include return postage so I felt no obligation to respond to them. Neither were as good a poet as you are. If it had been ‘knock my socks off’ good I would
have gone without a lunch or something to write them back.
Best wishes,
Summer
No comments:
Post a Comment