RP: Whether reading Yeats and Frost and Ferlinghetti
intimidates her is a matter of her own psychological makeup.
There's no law that says that people who read Yeats, etc.,
are so stunned and depressed they give up doing anything of
their own.
Why Ferlinghetti? His best work is mostly made up of quotes
from other poets and writers. "Coney Island of the Mind" is
a quote from Henry Miller, for example. A poem like "The
Junkman's Obbligato" consists almost entirely of quotes from
Whitman, Yeats, Eliot, Hart Crane, etc. Ole Ferl is sort of
a prototypical Slam Poet, stuck on being witty and hip. He's
a fine poet who has helped American poetry -- don't get me
wrong -- but he is hardly intimidating. Robert himself, when
he shares some of his poetry, is much more intimidating that
Ferl.
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