Gioia on Kees and other stories

 Not for the first time, one is indebted to Anecdotal Evidence. This time for a link to a new film by Dana Gioia on Weldon Kees,

It's a good match. It sent me straight back to the Kees books - the poems, the stories and the biography and the best of them were vividly much better than I remembered them, possibly helped in no small way by Dana's seal of approval. It is such things that make one's continued interest and desultory participation in 'poetry' worthwhile.

The Pushkin biography was set aside to accommodate Rory Waterman's essays, then the John Lucas novel has to wait its turn in deference to the Vernon Scannell biography which itself had some time off while Kees was given an updating look. I'm not necessarily putting him in the very top echelon but there are poems and stories that belong alongside the best.

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The upstairs room where the ceiling fell in is back together again, like Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway. Re-arranged, not exactly pristine but at least serviceable for my unfussy requirements. 

Putting back the books on the Novels, M to Z, shelves I felt some sorrow for 50 year old paperbacks showing their age. Most of them won't be read by me again and could hardly be given away to anybody who wanted them. So, why continue to give them houseroom. 

Firstly because it's not clear which of them won't be read again and one can't tell what's going to happen to make me want to look back at something. And, secondly, I never really recovered from the trauma of disposing of the pop vinyl that was ostensibly only taking up space and wouldn't be played again. And so I lost that essential archive of 'personal heritage', those sacred items that represented 'who I was' - the Yellowman albums, the first singles I bought, the PiL Metal Box. It's necessary to enjoy living in a library of one's own making while one can.