Dear Joe W.,
Like many of your readers, I was first introduced to your work when I read "Letters to Wendy's". I was assigned the book as part of a creative writing class that I was taking at the University of Georgia. I was 22. I have followed your career ever since and have many times shared your work with my
friends. And reading your words we have laughed, like really laughed,
and I thank you for the joy that has given me.
But maturity for me has finally set in––probably a little late, to be
sure––and now your poetry has taken on a much greater importance. Now I
understand a little more about what your humor is aiming towards. The
day in and day out of adult life has given me a greater understanding of
tragedy, but maybe understanding is the wrong word. What I mean is, as
I've become older, I've now confronted tragedy and put it in to sharper
focus; I've now stared it in the face, close enough to see the light
reflecting from its eyes.
And because of this confrontation with tragedy, with loss, with
suffering, and despair (these are serious words, and I am using them
seriously), humor, for me, has taken on a life or death importance. It
has become a matter of standing on the edge of a cliff and deciding on
whether or not to step over into the abyss, or to simply laugh into it.
Your poetic speech contains the weight of all of this, of the
confrontation with human despair and the rising tide of emotions that
come from the realities of adult life, and, I think, the proper attitude
for engaging in the confrontation.
I think I get some of what you are trying to do, is what I'm trying to
say. And I have learned a lot from your work; that is, I have learned much
about what poetic speech is capable of accomplishing. I had been skeptical before, but
I now I am convinced of its power and importance.
I've never written a fan letter before, but I wanted you to know that,
for what it's worth, your work has meant a lot to me. I've turned to
your poems many times and have found in them some relief from loneliness
and isolation. I read your work and laugh out loud, and even though my
laughter, over time, has grown heavier from this confrontation with my
abyss, it has become more frequent, and more visceral and necessary. And
in your work I've found better reasons to laugh, to confront, and to
stare without blinking at all of it––the tragic and the sublime––with
fists clenched and my head staring forward, white-knuckled with a toothy
smile. So, again, thanks Joe, thanks for all the existential giggles
and the inspiration; they have served me well.
Best,
M.W. Ross
University of Massachusetts
Amherst, MA
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