Here's the opening to Mark Strand's intro to Best American Poetry 1991 (One of the first poetry books I bought, outside of school):
"It is 1957. I am home on vacation from art school, sitting across from my mother in the living room. We are talking about my future. My mother feels I have picked a difficult profession. I will have to struggle in obscurity, and it may be years and years before I am recognized; even then there is no guarantee that I will be able to make a living or support a family. She thinks it would be wiser for me to become a lawyer or doctor. It is then that I tell her that although I have just begun art school, I am actually more interested in poetry. "But then you'll never be able to earn a living," she says. My mother is concerned that I shall suffer needlessly. I tell her that the pleasures to be gotten from poetry far exceed those that come with wealth or stability. I offer to read her some of my favorite poems by Wallace Stevens. I begin with "The Idea of Order at Key West." in a few minutes, my mother's eyes are closed and her head leans to one side. She is asleep in her chair."
Has anyone else had a conversation like this? Feel free to post your own as a response....
(My Dad, circa 1987: "What the hell do you want to be an English major for?" His sincere expression of love and concern--and I mean that not sarcastically.)
Cheers,
--MJH
