absolute poems

He waited 30 years for that run of poems that were absolute and couldn’t be ignored. All that time he felt them inside himself but they never came forth.

almost a solicitation

When a poet gets a “No, thanks,” rejection, he ignores the ‘no’ and clings to that ‘thanks’ and thinks the editor is saying in code, ‘Send me something again soon’.

low alert

Poet, be alert to what others ignore.

non-event

Sometimes a good occasional poem comes from an event the poet would otherwise have ignored.

known unknown

Save me from the celebrity poet: Give me the ignored poet, uneasy with attention, that’s who I want to read.

singularly ignored

Your poetry has avoided influence but I’m afraid it has escaped interest as well.

imaginative limit

Imagination at its height forgets (or ignores) reality, and in that moment it fails utterly.