"No blue without yellow"
Simic, Hall, Gilbert, Brooks, Lowell, Valentine, van Gogh
Charles Simic:
Donald Hall:
Jack Gilbert:
I started writing poetry because I finally got to go to college and I met Gerald Stern. We started hanging out together. I was interested in writing novels, but he was always talking about poetry—usually poetry, sometimes fiction. We were competitive with each other. So I decided I would write poetry for a semester and then go back to writing novels. I never went back.
Gwendolyn Brooks:
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Robert Lowell to Elizabeth Bishop, August 15, 1957:
Jean Valentine:
Vincent van Gogh to Émile Bernard, June 7, 1888:
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