My poetry plan was to re-read all of Donald Justice — maybe in honor of his passing. Instead, I find myself reading and re-reading “Man on the Dump” by Stevens. I must have read it 11 times in the past 24 hours. It’s so bad that I get annoyed if I’m in the middle and the phone rings or I have to do something.

I don’t know why this poem has me by the throat, but it reminded me of a conversation I had with someone recently. He read a book of poetry by a younger poet. Then, he read one Richard Wilbur poem for two hours. He said that experience made him notice the difference in quality and depth between the kind of poem you don’t — or can’t — spend that much time reading and a poem like Wilbur’s that you could spend all day reading.

What poem could you spend all day reading? Anyone else have an obsession with a poem?

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