november '00

until you do that, you haven't got a poem

meant to put this up sooner.

at any one time, he said, he has notes for or drafts of 50 or 100 poems, yet if some take days or weeks to complete, others take years. "repair" includes a long-line poem, "king," inspired by an incident 30 years earlier after the murder of the rev. dr. martin luther king jr. mr. williams watched two white policemen provoking "a tall, handsome black man, bearded, an artist," as he walked to a memorial service.

black man, white man: i can still see us, one standing stricken, the other stalking away;
i can still feel the anger, feel still because it is still in me my helpless despair.

"when it happened, i tried to write a poem about it, and there just wasn't a way to do it," recalled mr. williams, who is known to friends as charlie. "it took me years to figure out, what am i trying to say? a poem can't just be interesting. it has to have some passionate meaning somewhere in it. or it has to create a passion. and until you do that, you haven't got a poem."

- new york times, "american bard in paris stokes poetic home fires"

posted November 06, 2000 in politics, print