Letter to Anthony Suter February 6 1986

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after 20 February: 55 bis, Blvd du Montparnasse 5ème Etage 75006 PARIS (telephone, to be installed on 21 February: 45 49 52 65) 6 February 1986 Dear Anthony, Now I can think of you as the first person (intending) to send to 55 bis a communication signalling the start of my bedding- down in to my new place. And thanks for putting that message in the attractive form of the illustration of your poem "These Are Lips" made by Jean Molinier. The poem, by the way, impressed me favorably when I first read it. Now that I have just finished reading it again, I still think now that it is a very good poem, saying something difficult and important with well chosen, imagina- tive words. I wondered about only two things? "trapped (I ask my typewriter now to start again) "trapped teeth," which might be hard to read to an audience or which might draw a reader's attention to its difficulty. Also (and I'm sure your experience will quickly provide the answer), in such agreeable entrapments, does the tongue-tip trap the teeth or do the teeth trap the tongue-tip? To move to a less concrete problems--if it is a problem--in the follow- ing stanza, second line, "from him" makes me study too long to find what it modifies, it makes me wonder about the smoothness of the thought continued from the first line. However, neither of these matters would bother anyone hang- ing onto the general sense of the developing action. Also, the poem has many fine phrases and some that are nearly perfect in the sense that probably no one could bring up better ones without changing the meaning. For one single example, I think that "sharpening taught" cannot be improved. And after stanza 3, I see nothing that I would change. Good work. About my new place, no bedding will be delivered there before 26 February, maybe later, so you might think of bringing a sleeping blanket (sleeping bag, i.e.). A friend of mine from Germany said she hoped to visit me this month during the uni- versity vacation period, but I don't know yet when she plans to show up. I'll keep you posted on that. Since your visit will be short (I think you said), there'll be no problem: if she shows up while you are at 55 bis or before you arrive, she can stay with some friends of hers during your visit. So don't worry about that. Wait a minute: I have a sleeping bag, so if there's no bedding, you can sleep on a folding cot that I have, and I'll take the sleeping bag. I brought linen and blankets from New York, so there's no problem. Best regards to all, P.S. On 12 February, I'm to join a group of four people at The Village Voice (3 + me) putting on a "show" in honor of Langston Hughes, whose birthday fell in February (born 1 Feb. 1902). I plan to read a poem by Hughes that so angered white Southerners in the South in 1931 that they planned to run him out of town. Then I'll read a few poems of my own that ere influenced by him. ---------------------------------------------------

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Typed letter to Anthony Suter from James Emanuel, dated February 6, 1986. He is impressed with Suter's poem "These Are Lips" and provides life-updates.

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  • type
    Image
  • created on
  • file format
    jpg
  • file size
    2 MB
  • container title
    James A. Emanuel Papers
  • creator
    James A. Emanuel
  • issue
    Box 3 Folder 26 Suter, Anthony, 1973-1994
  • rights
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • rights holder
    James A. Emanuel Estate
  • version
    6-Feb-86