Product Description

Poetry. E-mail Correspondence. "The DAY BOOK OF A VIRTUAL POET" provides a unique entrance into the ideas and practices-into the life, finally-of one of our great writers"-Burt Kimmelman. This unique book is a record of e-mail letters from Robert Creeley to high school students participating in an online honors poetry course. It explores the educational possibilities of a medium that has become second nature to people across the generations. Creeley: "All the tendentious proposals as to 'why write,' in Pound's useful phrase, finally fade to the one point W.C. Williams made by saying, 'Why don't we tell them it's fun?' Not just the authority of endless revisions, not just the lists of publications or prizes won, not just the company of poets of public record - just fun. Fun. Fun."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1775638 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 122 pages

Review
"The Day Book of a Virtual Poet provides a unique entrance into the ideas and practices--into the life, finally--of one of our great writers. This journal is the result of an extraordinary exchange between Creeley and a group of youngsters who participated in the adventure of an 'on-line' poetry. The teacher here is remarkably candid. ... Here is a rare opportunity for the Creeley reader to appreciate, especially, how a day book can be transformed into a new and richly rewarding literary genre." -- Burt Kimmelman

About the Author
The late Robert Creeley, former poet laureate for the State of New York, was the author of numerous books of poetry, criticism, and prose. He was recognized as one of this nation's most outstanding, and prolific post-war writers.

Customer Reviews

Author's reflections
I don't think a book has so pleased me in years, just that it came so unintentionally to hand. I had been instrumental in getting City Honors School in Buffalo, NY online and then wanted to make some active contribution to the school's online writing program. The "Day Book" collects the pieces I thus wrote and then sent to the common listserv, CHOPS Online. As weeks and then months went by, they accumulated -- and I kept writing them all summer, despite school was out, because it became such fun. More than anything else, it was a place to say a great many things as a poet, to make clear what I valued, to witness the passing of friends as James Dickey, Allen Ginsberg and Denise Levertov, to keep the faith in my own way. Again, that it all becomes a book is a bonus I'd in no way anticipated. --Robert Creeley