Date:         Thu, 9 Jun 1994 15:26:09 -0400
Sender:       UB Poetics discussion group
From:         Chris Funkhouser

Just received a message from Santa Cruz sharing news of the passing of
William Everson (Brother Antoninus of SF Renaissance group), a
friend and writer/printer.

Inspirations, withanks, flipping thru _Birth of a Poet_ (Black Sparrow '82):


        A knowledge of myth is crucial to a knowledge of vocation.
        In some way vocation is an enterprise, an enterprise of ser-
        vice or discovery, and the moment it becomes that, it be-
        comes mythic. It is this dimension which changes vocation
        from career to witness. (53)

                        *               *               *

        Spontaneous utterance deals with the potentiality of a
        tongue but craftsmanship deals with its limitations. You
        have to learn to balance yourself between them. Use the
        right hand of your power in all its tumultuous pouring
        forth, its torrential sound, its waterfalls of dissonance and
        assonance, its cascades of tonality and inflection. But never
        forget the left hand of craftsmanship always has the last
        word. It defines the line beyond which you have not gone,
        and are prevented from going. (89)

                        *               *               *

        Go now into the great latitude that awaits you out there,
        the reality that is not closing but opening. Seize it in your
        two hands even as you embrace it and wrestle the meaning
        from it in your thirst. But never forget that only the accep-
        tance at the close will yield the mystery of wholeness to
        you, the thing you desire most of all. You have to lose your
        life in order to save it. You have to expend yourself in order
        to find yourself. You gain your life only by giving it up. (193)


                                        William Everson, 1912-1994