SARGASSO


critic for about twelve years, and that took a tremendous

amount of time which was one of the reasons that I gave

it up. I find that I need rather large spaces of time

to work on poetry. Not necessarily that the poems are

long; the poems are usually quite short. A five or

eight line poem might take three or four days or longer.

 Drama is a communal experience whether you are

sitting on my side as an audience, or whether you are on

the other side of production or acting. You are part of

a community, you get together, it is a communal celebration.

I may not have been the most popular guest at these

feasts, but I was always there. Poetry for me is a more

private thing. My audience would embrace all countries

or anybody who would be sufficiently interested or moved

by my poetry. I know that it would definitely be a very

small audience.

 I don't know how my long Caribbean experience has

been affecting my poems, although I know it has. Let me

give you one example. When I first came to Puerto Rico

twenty-five years ago, I lived at the beach in Naguabo.

At that time my first wife, who was a painter, was doing

a lot of lovely paintings which very definitely reflected