"How big or small would your list be?"

a week or so ago Mark Young brought out my book of Hollywood poems. almost immediately thereafter Otoliths releasd Tom Beckett's Parts and Other Pieces
.
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I've known Tom Beckett for more than 3 decades. he publishd my Postcard Poems 33 years ago.

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here we are at my retirement party in 1993.

he'd just written in the guest book:

The pronouns inside
you now
won't quit.

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if Steve Allen was the Answer Man then Tom Beckett is the Question Man. the questions he offers in his series of interviews are legend. his interview with me had its difficult moments. he wantd me to go places I didn't care to travel. but he's insistent & together we went there. & I'm grateful.

his new book opens with a list of questions. they already have a place in American letters. "Questions at Ohio State" were being talkd abt & written abt from the moment Tom performd them in Columbus a year ago.

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a line from my book:

white on white on white

a line from his book:

I and I and I.

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I've never slept with Tom but we have sex every time I read "Andswerving Fragmeants."

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this man who sees himself as a "gimpy graceless person" is an idea gazelle. on the page his dance can be delicate or savage.

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postpone the orchids.
this isn't a date.
I'm a size queen
who declares Beckett's book
one of the big achievements of listmaking.

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& did I mention?
he makes me laugh.