ALICIA OSTRIKER
295
For some people, all this will be as refreshing as daylight. For most readers
and critics of American poetry it will not even be poetry, and this is reason–
able . Writers of indecorum preach
to
the converted, maybe giving blood
tr.ansfusions
to
shrivelled convictions ; they should not expect a broad
audience. I remember a woman once saying
to
me, apologetically, "I
love
Paul Goodman's poetry, but I know it's for the wrong reasons." I think it
is a bit deplorable that we should apologize for what we love, yet that about
wraps it up : anyone who cares for Goodman's poetry will do so "for the
wrong reasons ."
