From TISH 4 (December 1961), copyright the estate of Al Purdy.

Editor, TISH:

Might say my own approach to poetry deals with the specific (almost always) in order to reach the general. And with me, generally the specific means people. That’s why I prefer in this presumably first ish [Frank] Davey’s stuff. But there were other bits and pieces I liked, but not as whole poems. [Lionel] Kearns SUDDEN INTIMATIONS is a bit prosy, but he ends it well. Bowering’s Sunday Poem is pretty damn good. (I’ll retract that no “whole poems” opinion.) That’s a good poem. “I swear/ there are/ pieces of pollen/ in the air you breathe into my lungs/ And your/ hair/ I am mystified by the forehead dance of air—” I think that’s really pretty good. Also like the first part of [Fred] Wah’s Landscale—the word “through” seems to me awkward where it was placed.

I hope you keep it up, and since you seem to have enough labor listed on first page, continuity seems promising.

Best,

Al Purdy

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