Frederick Seidel: Laureate of the Louche

The New York Times

A very interesting review & essay on Frederick Seidel is at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/magazine/12Seidel-t.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Here is a quote from the very last paragraphs:

“It’s very much,” Seidel said, “to do with the sense you develop, in the writing of a poem, that at a certain moment it has its separate being from you to which you have your obligations. You’re you; it’s it; and eventually, it really will separate from you and be absolutely not yours anymore — even if you made it. It is, of course. But it isn’t. It’s a thing out there.”

Seidel gestured to the window, to Manhattan, to the lights that shone in the dark. I looked at them and saw, reflected in the glass, hovering over the city, Seidel. I turned back to look at him, the real Seidel.

“So this is where you write?”

“My boy,” he said, “this is where I live.”