Technical Notes
Catullus is my master and I mix
a little acid and a bit of honey
in his bowl love
is my subject & the lack of love
which lack is what makes evil a
poet must strike
Catullus could rub words so hard
together their friction burned a
heat that warms
us now 2000 years away I roll the
words around my mouth & count the
letters in each
line thus eye and ear contend in-
side the poem and draw its move-
ment tight Milton
thought rhyme was vulgar I agree
yet sometimes if it’s hidden in
the line a rhyme
will richen tone the thing I most
despise is quote poetic unquote
diction I prefer
to build with plain brown bricks
of common talk American talk then
set 1 Roman stone
among them for a key I know Ca-
tullus knew a poem is like a blow
an impact strik-
ing where you least expect this I
believe and yet with me a poem
is finally just
a natural thing.
Copyright Credit: James Laughlin, “Technical Notes” from Poems New and Selected. Copyright © 1996 by James Laughlin. Reprinted with the permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Source: Poems New and Selected (1998)