"Moderation is not a negation of intenisty,

but helps avoid monotony"

Will you stop for a while, stop trying to pull yourself

together

for some clear "meaning"--some momentary summary?

no one

can have poetry or dances, prayers or climaxes all day;

the ordinary

blankness of little dramatic consciousness is good for the

health sometimes,

only Dostoyevsky can be Dostoyevskian at such long

tumultuous stretches;

look what intensity did to poor great Van Gogh!;

linger, lunge,

Scrounge and be stupid, that doesn't take much centering

of one's forces;

as wise Whitman said, "lounge and invite the soul." Get

enough sleep;

and not only because (as Cocteau said) "poetry is the

literature of sleep";

be a dumb bell for a few minutes at least; we don't want

Sunday church bells

ringing constantly.

[John Tagliabue]