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JH: To me it's the question of if labels are valuations. To some people they are, to some they are indexes. To me labels are names, and to me names stand distinct from what is named. Words are speaking about words, with what is alluded to being the poem. Reality, to use a quick label, being more poetic than poems, and poems being the prose of this poetry. The most rhythmic poem cannot compete with the rhythms of nature. What does poetry have that nature cannot compete with? I would say clarity, for no matter how obscure the poem, it cannot possess the enigma of nature. Imitating this enigma, trying offer the human with as little self-consciousness as possible in order to mimic nature, or to enact nature commenting on herself, is something that can be done in poetry. Mimicking classic poetry does the same with history. Here a lot could be added, by someone who knows far more about philosophy than myself, about what history has in common with nature. Nature has been around a lot longer than humans, and mortality is one of the certain things people have that nature lacks – our song to sing. Is nature just another term, though? Assigning physical laws, or habits, to events and assuming these laws comprise one single entity?

AHB: I dunno from all that, but you got me worried! The art therapist I took a course from this past fall writes of treating works of art as entities with lives, and rights. There's something natural about art. His thesis being that works of art are born, and no longer can be controlled by the artist. He wrote in a controversial way, but in fact, it's pretty reasonable. The nature of art! The house we recently moved from, my parent's, the new owners cu all the tall pines down in the yard and even the stately oak. I hate seeing trees cut for mere aesthetic reasons. Nature is bigger than that. I may be riffing well away from your point, and I always have difficulty twining ratiocinations and concatenations. I want to say poetry is deadly serious, but of course it's also a career dance of author photos and careful planning. pure distraction. The blog world highlights this aspect of 'the poetry world' as well as the the network communique connection. how about shifting me away from this half-assed pondering of mine and name an exciting living writer of little note.