From: carlosfleitas@netgate.com.uy
Date: February 16, 2005 8:33:24 PM CST
To: smorse@sigafoos.net

Dear Mr Stephen Morse:

Many thanks for your email. Most kind of you.
Of course you can use the set, with all the changes you feel like because of my typos.

I am already receiving the messages from Juice [MOAPG]
And we have sure many things in common. I am slow thinker also, and also savor ideas as if each where a meal as you so sharply state.

Alan Watts once said that poets work by rythms instead
of doing so by clock-time. I find this is so true!
I trust the 'background' of the brain. If one has
patience, inspiration will come by itself. Furthermore i say to myself, well carlos, you would like to write something about...but you feel it is not the appropiate moment...leave it there in the background of your brain working by itself...and someday the poem will bloom.... and it works!
I am sure i am going to learn very much in your serious and inspiring Web poetry site, and it will also be a good stimulus to keep writing in English, language i do love so much!

Concerning my haiku they are an homage to Jack Kerouac writer i cherish so much. In my humble opinion they are real 'american haiku' I remember Kerouac wrote:

"The American Haiku is not exactly the Japanese
Haiku. The Japanese Haiku is strictly disciplined
to seventeen syllables but since the language
structure is different I don't think American
Haikus (short three-line poems intended to be
completely packed with Void of Whole) should worry about syllables because American speech is
something again...bursting to pop.
Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free
of all poetic trickery and make a little picture
and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi
Pastorella."

And concerning Gene [Fowler], what can I say. I owe a lot to him. Thanks to Gene i dared to 'jump' to the web and also start to write in English. He has always been there, teaching me, supporting me and generously honoring me
with his friendship.

Many thanks again for your concern and good will

warmest regards
Carlo

**********

Carlos,

As I have told Gene and anyone else who cared to listen, I am a slow thinker. I savor ideas as if each were a meal. I think that is why I am drawn to poetry. I say this all as a sort of apology for not responding to Gene's suggestions and your work before now.
I needed time to read your poems that Gene sent me in the form ofready-for-juice html's. And thanks to the web I was able to read other works by you including your essay on "Musicality in Haiku Written in Spanish" which I found very useful in my attempt to evaluate what I was reading in terms of what Gene refers to as being a *set* (which is
an interesting combination of mathematical and music performance referents).

I'd like to use the "set" that was sent to me. I noticed what
appeared to be typos in at least two of the poems, and I will fix those if there's no objection. One of the good things about web publishing is that you will be able to review the published results as a sort of virtual galley and changes can be made relatively easily.

Haiku, as a sort of form, has been somewhat confusing to me, and I have tended to read them as if they were short imagist poems, like Pound's In a Station of the Metro poem. I have always felt that the issue of definition was one better left to the masters of the craft. If such a poet chooses to call a poem a haiku, then it's a haiku.

The series of poems was interesting. I enjoyed the musicalityand subject of "Thelonius Monk, 'round about himself", and in fact all of the poems were enjoyable to read and get a feel for with the exception of "Starry Night" which is going to take more time and effort
for me to assimilate. But I find the combination of the pieces to be,as I expected, somehow complementary.

I notice you signed on as a member of MOAPG and I assume you received the automessage for new members. You are welcome to participate on any level that you wish.

Best,
Stephen Morse

Editor/Publisher
Juice Magazine Online
http://www.juice-press.com/poetry