dunno about you dunnowing about Pound.Sue wrote: dunno about Pound -
Because it seems to me that you know more about poets and poetry than all of us put together that leads me to think that what you mean by dunno is that you are not sure if you should take his light as light that can lead away from darkness. In other words "Can I trust him?"
If that is your question it is one that might be interesting taking a look at.
I don't know what may be all of the problems that someone might have with Pound but I do know of three things and since three is not too big a number I thought I would look at them.
The first is Pound the Traitor.
The following is a mug shot taken by the U.S. Army when they arrested him for treason.
- Ezra_Pound_1945_May_26_mug_shot.jpg (15.27 KiB) Viewed 2691 times
After the war with a charge of treason on his head he was arrested in Italy by the Italians who let him go saying they had no interest in his case. There was never any record that any one other than Italians in italy were listening to him and were being influenced by him. After being released by the Italians he turned himself over to the Americans and the Army placed him in a cage near the city of Pisa. They kepted him in that cage for 25 days before putting a tent over it. Meaning that for 25 days he was exposed to not only the elements of nature but with a sign on the cage with the word "traitor" he was also exposed to things like people coming by and spitting on him. Imagine what that must have been like for a highly sensitive poet to be in that position for having the nerve to say something like democracy was not yet being represented by the U.S.A.
Although at the time he was living in italy because that was where he felt at home and also that was where his parents and daughter had made their home,he had been born in the US and so the American interests had their rights to him and he was brought back to the US to be tried. It was something that was watched by other poets and writers as a way for them to learn about the care they should give their words.
He was never tried but rather judged to be incurably insane and unable to stand trial. Since treason was a capitol offence it seems a trial would have been dangerous for all involved. One of the problems was that he just didn't seem insane. He continued on with his position that usury and banking interests were what was being conducted going under the name of democracy.
After he was finally released he left America and was asked what he thought of his home country and gave this famous reply "America is a lunatic asylum."
If he had heard at the time that years later a Leonard Cohen would sing a song called "Democracy" which was essentially saying many of the things that he was accused of and that it would actually be sung at a presidential ball he might have thought that a bit crazy but then again he might have said that Leonard could get away with it because he was Jewish, which brings us to the second thing about Pound that made people uncomfortable.
Pound's anti-Semitic statements.
Continuing long after the war while he was living in a hospital he continued with a focus that what must be struggled against was Usury and Avarice. Because of the number of Jews in the banking industry he would repeatedly speak of Jews as being who must be struggled against. This led to some of his closest friends not wanting to be in his presense any more. Eventually it seemed that he came to see the mistake that he was making in that regard. In the introduction to a book in 1972 he wrote "In sentences referring to groups or races 'they' should be used with great care. re USURY: I was out of focus, taking a symptom for a cause. The cause is AVARICE." As far as I know he never spoke about the Jews in the same way again. It takes a bit of thinking to see what he was saying in that sentence.
I think one of the reasons he was so appreciative of Buckminster Fuller was because given the opportunity to see things from Bucky's viewpoint one whould never be able to make some of the mistakes that he (Pound) made.
His time with Bucky started in Venice in 1971 and Bucky was one of the first persons he spoke to after his long public silence. He told Bucky "Everytime humanity gives me a chance, I make such a mess of it" he seemed to be in a lot of pain. This led to some very profound encounters between him and Bucky and seemingly leading to a great deal of peace and happiness on the part of Pound as well as Bucky. These encounters also included Bucky's wife Ann and Pound's companion Olga. Which brings us to the third problem that people might have had with Pound.
Pound in a ménage à trois.
For most of his life Pound was involved in an uneasy ménage à trois with two women. I have no idea of who loved who or what was the nature of their relationships. All I know was that it happened and it might have bothered people.
This was interesting for me to think about these things. I hope others find it interesting as well.
