Hi  Chris .
 
  "...the  only  way  to  keep  the  best  writing  in  circulation  , or  to  make  the  best  poetry  popular  is  by  drastic  separation  of  the  best  from  a  great  mass of  writing  that  has  been  long  considered  of  value ... "
                                       /  E. P. -  ABC of  Reading/
 
Dont  you   think  Chris  that  we  are  right  now  in  a  very  especial  ,just  peculiar  situation   when  all  the  greatest  writers  of XX   century  are   dead  and  all  the  greatest  writers  of  XXI  century are not  born  yet  ?  I  have a  strange  impression  it  is  the true . Looking  in  the  past  I  really  can  find  books  which  are  still  actual , written  by  people  I  consider  a  man  of  genius  , but   presently   when  XX cent . is  coming  to  an  end  -  it  looks  that   what  has  remained   for  us  -  it  is   only    sweeping  and   cleening up  the  shelves  . Preparing  new  shelves  for  incoming   poets  and  writers  , deciding  who  was  the  best  , who  was   overrated   and  so  on .
I  think  you  taste  in  the  area  of  literature  is  similar  to  my  own .  That  can  be  true  in  the  area  of  english  language .
In  my  own  language  I  simply  have  nothing  valuable  to  read  at   present .
Which  dosen't  means  nothing  valuable  was  printed  for  the  past 20 years  .  I  like  for  example  books  by  Jan  Drzezdzon  / his  last  name  sounds  like "gegon"/  - a  kaschubian  writer  , who  has  written   in  Polish   quite  a  number  of  books  , using  the  logic  of dreams . For  me  that  was  the  real  "martial low" prose  based  on  the idea  of "internal  emigration "  and  northern  tradition  of  tales . But  there  is  only  a  small  amount  of  critics  and  readers  who  know   him , he practically  passed  his  time  too . The  best  poet  of  XX  cent.  in  Poland  was  for  me  Rafal  Wojaczek  -  an  underground    writer  from  Wroclaw/Breslau . He  was  the  most  geman-like  polish  poet  in  our  history  . / He  was   silesian / . The  main  point  of  his  writing  it  is  enormously   powerful  language. He  commited  suicide  at  the  age  of 26  and  certainly  he  cannot  to be  compared  to  E. P . But  his  potential  was  giant .
Germans  dont pay attention  on  writers  who  use  polish  , similary   for Poles  - a silesian  or  kaschubian  writer  is  "almost  German" .
But  I  dont  know better  writers  in  middleeurope  for  the  past  50  years .
Where  is  a common  point  with  E. P.  writing  ? Probably  nowhere  , but "Pisan  Cantos "  by  E. Pound  and  " Anderes  Marchen " / I  give  a  german  title /  by  R. Wojaczek  are  my  No 1 &  No 2  books  of  poetry  for  XX  cent .
I  would  like  to  see  in  the  coming  century  more  noneuropian    writers   on  the  top . I  think  that  XX  cent.  is  generally   saying - very  promising  for  you .
But  it  is  right  now  Europes  autumn   -  not  spring , summer   and   not  yet  - a  winter .So  for  the  serious  competition  you  will  have  to  search  somewhere   here  -  Western  Europian  nations  are  in  my  opinion  very  clearly  artistically   exhausted .
Have  you  read  anything  valuable   written  by  French  writer  recently? I  tried  ,  and  I  almost  died  because  of  boredom .
                                         All  the  best  .                                                                                                                                             Pawel
                                               Cracow 19.07.98
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