A Faithful Account of Where I Live: The Letters of Cid Corman and William Bronk

11 Jan[uary] 70

Dear Cid,

Olson is dead without my knowing what he was ever about [Olson died on the 10th of January 1970]. I thought he was about right things but I never knew. We wrote each other from time to time and tried to meet but didn't make it. In Contempt of Worldliness in The Empty Hands was written for him one time when I heard him on a radio panel show.

This morning about eleven four crows in a tree the other side of the fence making a peat mane and I couldn't see what it was all about apart from some bluejays in the next tree who seemed to have come to watch as curious as I. But when the jays flew of the crows followed still shouting so maybe the jays were the object of the whole affair instead of watchers. I don't often see crows so near the house or at this time of year. In the very early spring they caw through the yard with the first light looking, I have thought, for pigeon nestlings. One year, a pair started to build a nest in one of the tall spruces in the yard but lost heart and went away after a few days. And last fall, the day we had our first snow, a cold grim day, the sun came out as I walked home from the office and it was suddenly all beautiful and a noise overhead in the light made by hundreds of crows migrated south in a great black cloud parting and quarreling. A great sight.

The snow is deeper than usual this year and when I go to the canal I go on snowshoes not to wade to my knees or above. The temperature has stayed near zero since before Christmas. This afternoon it got up almost to 30, bright and clear, but a strong wind out of the northwest and I came home very cold and glad to get there.

Reading [Origin] 16. I do like [Seymour] Faust. We see some same things.

The word in That is HUSK. Besides That and Beatific Effigies what did I send you so I know what you plan to use?

Yes, the music (if that is what you mean by a harmonic edge)

"It is hard to believe of the world that there should be music in it." But, what else? As George [Oppen] says that all he has ever worked for was clarity, so for me, what I want is to praise the music.

Keep warm

Bill