lost works

In the course of interviewing the poet for an article, knowing his propensity for one-draft writing, I asked him if her ever threw something away that he later regretted...

WFDV: Well, actually, there are lost works that I regret losing or misplacing.

EJ: Lost works?

WFDV: Yeah. The 8th Panther Cyle, which I tossed because it was so overwhelmingly dark. My first black catalog, which had like 350 pieces in it. A couple of poems I have writ on napkins and tablecloths for women I have been out with. Even a poem I once composed on a woman's thigh. All lost. Add to that the journals I lost to Hurrican Katrina that were in the care of my ex, and you have more than the output of most major poets, just in the lost works.

I just thought I'd pass that along. Interesting. He didn't elaborate on who the woman was he'd used for foolscap (or if he could recall the poem). I have my theory.

He also spoke of works he'd composed out loud with no pen or recording device, including a spontaneous finale to his stage show "Pen Dragon" he performed at West Virginia University in 1980.