ARTHUR E. SMITH
73
anybody who has been destroyed by a prize-except for Tony Curtis and
Marlon Brando. (laughter) All the movie stars, all the movie stars .. . .
Int :
SpeakingofBly, he's beginning to exert some influence at least among
some younger poets through his magazine
The Seventies,
and of course
there 's the Black Mountain school-
Levine:
1'd like to interrupt
you.
Bly began exerting influence on whatever a
younger poet is back in the fifties . The magazine was originally called
The
Fifties.
And it was much more exciting in the fifties and sixties than it is
now. How many issues have there been in the seventies?
Int :
One , as far as I know . . . .
Levine :
That 's right . So it 's hardly a very vital magazine . Most of us know
what he has
to
say . His contribution has been immense , but I don't think
that it is very strong in younger people . I've seen a great reaction against it ,
for reasons I don 't entirely understand .
Int :
His poetry isn't all that strong, and yet he seems to–
Levine:
I disagree . He 's a very strong poet.
Int:
He had very weak moments in his last book. But his magazine–
Levine :
There are really weak moments in Whitman, weaker moments in
Whitman than there are in Bly. Some of the worst poems
you
could ever
read were written by Whitman , also some of the greatest . Whether Bly's
last book was up to his best , I don't know. I don 't happen to think it was his
best book either, but he's still a tremendous poet , and a lot of the authority
of the magazine comes from the fact that
you
know
you
are being addressed
by a tremendous mind , a tremendous spirit, a tremendous poet. The
spokesman before Bly was Rexroth . Maybe they shared it for a while.
Obviously , there 's going
to
be a new spokesman. Bly had an immense
influence in the fifties and sixties , but I don't really know that he's going to
be the influential figure of the seventies . I would think not. I would think it
would be somebody else , a younger person . ...
Int :
Getting back
to
the schools of poetry, the Black Mountain school , the
New York school , the Iowa workshop .. . .
You
have managed to remain
somewhat aloof from all of these . Your poetry hasn't seemed to have been
particularly influenced by any certain school.
Levine:
I have been influenced by a great many people who write poetry . I
remember reading ·Allen Ginsberg back in the fifties when I was at Iowa,
and liking him better than anything anyone was liking at Iowa . Iowa wasn 't
a school , it was a university . There wasn 't a school of poetry there then . I
haven ' t kept up with what 's happening there since and I don't have any
particular interest to . There was some real similarity in the Black Mountain
poets, but I think what poets give each other is sympathy , and careful
reading and honest criticism . 1've taken from wherever I could find it . I read
