Sunday, February 19, 2017

From Ogden Nash to an Admirer 61 Years Ago

The epitome of dry wit.


1 comment:

Brett Butler said...

What fine, odd things these browsers be when considering the likes of Mr. Nash: I'm no Luddite, but seeing the yellowed stationery and backslash-free correspondence here does feed nostalgia's many layers. From this approximate time in my own history - and I wasn't born for two more years after the note was written - until now as I hur approach my seventh decade, I can hear my grandfather's bemused drawl as he'd read Nash poetry to us...

A few years later, entering junior high, I discovered the work of Vachel Lindsay and wondered if the two been contemporaries. In the lightness of Nash, which I don't mistake for a lack of depth, I'm reminded of Lindsay's work, "Every Soul is a Circus". Thank you for bringing this terribly important writer back to us. There is surely a less pedestrian way to say that, but it truly feels as if the best parts of my youth - especially meaning the presence of the Old Ones in my family - the ones who included poetry in their daily lives - are here now, illuminated, audible, eternal.

Somehow I reckon you know just what I mean. Pax et lux,

Brett Butler

 
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