Glad news of David Ferry

    Mr Ferry has won the

    National Book Award

    for the collection

    cited last month.

    
    It was indeed an-
    other occasion of
    happiness and risk.

    
    It would be unnatur-

    al to suppress the

    impulse to award 

    such prizes, but 

    it is almost unnat-
    ural to do so by
    extreme selection.

    Does such a gesture
    compromise intention
    to commemorate?

    What is saved by
    sharp discernment?
    Who is entitled to
    his simple answer?

    Do we love our
    playing fields be-
    cause their out-
    comes can be fair, 
    and give us broad
    elation in the game?
    Or do we love them
    because they thrust
    up heroes on demand?

    There is a cast of
    mind which has a
    blue state, a cast
    of mind of red. It
    never was more clear
    than just this year.
    It amounts to a dis-
    tinction in what a
    a treasuring is.

    Mr Ferry writes poet-
    ry of structure, bal-
    ance, endurance and
    grace. Our playing
    fields teach us to
    love these qualities
    not as ornaments: as
    features of obliga-
    tion, of readiness 
    for honest play. We
    love Ferry's poetry,
    it shines of rapture
    in the game.

    
    






David Ferry
Bewilderment
  New Poems and Translations
op. cit.