cwg

the term "technical excellence" has an unpoetic sound to most ears. but if an intelligence be deeply concerned with the bringing up of the body of poetry to a contemporary level equal with the excellence of other times, technique means everything. surely an apprentice watching his master sees nothing prosaic about the details of technique. nor would he find a narrow world because of the smallness of the aperture through which he views it, but through that pinhole, rather, a world enormous as his mind permits him to witness...-WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS on GEORGE OPPEN's "discrete series""Not arrogant from habit, Furious with perception."EZRA POUND