Growing into poetry

Dear Mike,

re: poetry and our usual concerns

At university I did not enjoy the poetic canon.  In 1971 I struggled to write anything about Gerard Manley Hopkins!

Dylan's lyrics and Jim Morrison's spoke louder.

After age 40 though, Robert Bly opened many doors.  

At age 66 this evening he connected William Blake and your own closing, "Girls, girls, girls"

The lust of the goat is the bounty of God.
The wrath of the lion is the wisdom of God.
The nakedness of woman is the work of God.
Excess of sorrow laughs. Excess of joy weeps.
The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity too great for the eye of man.

Two girls Ted & Mike would have liked in college

This young lady, Chrystal Jewel, still suffers from "residual teen angst." See more photos and a video interview at http://ripetv.com/girls/20/galleries . Hey Ted, maybe we could have introduced her to Dasein !
(In their adolescent years, Ted and Mike dealt with their feelings of social inadequacy by posturing as existential heroes. Once Ted jokingly suggested we go by Mike Angst and Ted Dasein.)

This young lady, Cara McCampbell, loves math, especially algebra. For more photos and a video interview, see http://ripetv.com/girls/25/galleries . Hey Ted, maybe she could have tutored us !

(In high school Ted and Mike didn't date a lot of girls, but we did tutor quite a few in algebra. In Ted's first year in Trumbull, our junior year in high school, a very good looking Italian American girl - Linda DeFeo - toyed with Ted and me on the side (a hunky college guy was her boyfriend). My "dates" with her consisted in going to her house (near Ted's) to tutor her in algebra. One evening she wasn't interested in the math lesson, she seemed to want to teach me something, and I was too dumb to catch on. I'll let Ted tell of his own story with her.)