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To Mr. Evan Mantyk,
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I know you lead a busy life curating the Society of Classical Poets and I don’t want to waste a bunch of your time with some long-winded missive.  That being said, if you can spare a few moments—can spare a few moments to read this it would mean a great deal to me!
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First and foremost, I would like to thank you for publishing my poem, “The Window Seat,” several months ago.  At the time, I was little more than an unpublished aspirant with little experience to speak of, a tyro not without delusions of grandeur.  But, as so often happens with overconfident greenhorns, the realities of literary competition would soon disabuse me of my presumptions and, as you can imagine, the rejections soon poured in.  I would learn that I am not, in fact, the heir-apparent to some vacant poetic throne, but rather I am just one amongst thousands of ambitious literary hopefuls—many of whom are writers significantly more nimble and gifted than myself.  Much to my chagrin, I would learn that I, too, have to climb the rungs just like everybody else.
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Nonetheless, I cannot help but know that I have had the benefit of the one all important resource without which no aspiring writer can bloom:  time.  As you’ve no doubt been able to glean from the envelope in which this letter has arrived, I am currently incarcerated.  As such, I have had the time to study prosody.  My prosodic education stands apart from that of other emerging poets.  While other emerging poets were learning their craft in university classrooms under the tutelage of poetry’s luminaries, I was in a prison cell, subjecting myself to a rigorously autodidactic curriculum of books, essays, and criticisms mailed to me by my mother.  While the next generation of literature’s gilded youth were out there receiving scrupulous instruction from this era’s accepted sages of verse, I was exhaustively poring over obscure tomes on poetic theory from a prison cell, limping my way through scansion in an effort to unriddle the secrets of meter—only to learn that Walt Whitman’s free-flowing verse had largely ushered in the death knell for traditional meter, sowing the seeds of the modernism and postmodernism to come.
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It was incredibly frustrating for me, after having dedicated years to learning the intricate methodology of formalism, to then discover that the foundational structure which our predecessors built had been cast aside in favor of the vagaries of seemingly wild and unbound expression-for-expression’s sake, an approach to poetics which all too often results in unintelligible compositions that serve more to bewilder than illuminate.  Suddenly, I found myself with a mind full of antiquated (and apparently obsolete) terms like trochee, anapest, spondee, alexandrine, etc.—but nowhere to go with them…
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Speaking of having nowhere to go, you’re probably wondering just where the hell I’m going with this letter (I tend to be drawn astray by my mind’s tangents, and I apologize if this letter has begun to reflect that tendency).  My point in this letter is this:  I would like to thank you for everything you do operating the Society.  Above, I alluded to the fact that my mother, Deborah, mails me books, essays, articles, and the like on the subjects of prosody and literary composition.  These books have included Proofs & Theories by Louise Glock, Nine Gates by Jane Hirshfield, The Freedom of the Poet by John Berryman, Poetic Meter and Poetic Form by Paul Fussell, Rhyme’s Reason by John Hollander, The Necessary Angel by Wallace Stevens, and countless other arcane volumes (I’m looking at them right now—a several hundred dollar heap of thoroughly dog-eared and underlined books leaning precariously in the corner of my cell).  That being said, the Society has also played a role in my education.  Every week, my mother mails me scholarly articles, essays, and poems from your website.  I read every word with relish.  For years, likely unbeknownst to you all, I have sat in this prison cell and imbibed the words of your poets—Susan Jarvis Bryant, Margaret Coats, C.B. Anderson, Joseph Salemi, James Tweedie, Roy Peterson, Sally Cook, yourself, and all the rest.  My mother mails me the comments section, too, and I often chuckle reading the little arguments (pedantic and good-natured, usually) which often ensue.  Frankly, I have long wanted to join in with these conversations and debates, but my circumstances obviously preclude my participation, and rightly so.
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Mr. Mantyk, I have lived a deeply flawed life.  In my youth, I endured a difficult battle with mental illness and substance abuse.  Nearly 12 years ago, shortly after dropping out of college at the age of 21, I was addicted to drugs and committed a home robbery.  It was a terrible thing and I got exactly—exactly— what I deserved.
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I beg of you: please know that I am not, today, the person I was then.
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But there is something else I want you to know—I want you to know that the articles, essays, and poems (which my mother has mailed to me over the years) from the Society of Classical Poets have provided a misguided young man something luminous in his darkness.
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It is thanks in no small part to you all that, today, I can call myself a published poet, with work having appeared or forthcoming in WestWard Quarterly, Blue Unicorn, The Chiron Review, Poem Magazine, The Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, and elsewhere.
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You know, I don’t know how often you get letters like this, letters from people just writing to express their gratitude.  But I know I could go on for hours writing about the impact the Society has had on my life—on my growth not only as a writer, but as a human being.  I don’t know if there is such a thing as “the redemptive power of poetry,” but I do know poetry has the power to change people for the better.  I’m living proof.
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Anyway, I just wanted to let you know these things.
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Thank you.  Truly.
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Your faithful—and grateful—reader in prison,
D.T. Holt
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The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary.


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21 Responses

  1. James Sale

    What a fabulous letter, what an interesting guy, and what a testimony to the work Evan is doing, to the power of literature and the spread of the SCP. This is truly amazing and I am so pleased you received it Evan – you are a saint for our times!!! Thank you.

    Reply
  2. ABB

    Ha, this guy is amazing. Time is, of course, the one element that escapes us all in our efforts at improvement. Mr. Holt seems to have, paradoxically, hit on the winning strategy. When my resources run out, I will consider robbery as the final recourse to greatness. Perhaps, if I commit a crime in his county, we could be bunkmates?

    Reply
    • Adam Sedia

      Robbery? Just go stand outside of an abortion clinic in a blue state. That’ll get you at least a decade.

      Reply
  3. Roy Eugene Peterson

    Bless you, D. T. Holt, for your active interest in SCP and joining us as a writer and reader. I can only imagine what you must endure. As one of my professors once told me (she had been held in a Nazi camp in Poland), the greatest freedom is the freedom of the mind. That is evident in your wonderful letter.

    Reply
  4. Linda Alice Fowler

    I, too, appreciate Evan and every poet I have read on this site. I am an aspiring (for decades, now) poet and find I learn from each line I read. Mr. Holt is far more eloquent than I, but my appreciation and gratitude is as strong.

    Reply
  5. jd

    I, too, think your letter is remarkable, D.T. Holt, first for your admirably expressed appreciation to SCP and then for all else that you have articulated. You obviously have a very good mind and have put it to very good use. Your Mother is a blessing and it seems that prison itself has been one too. Thank you for being willing to share all that you have in your letter.

    You might enjoy reading, Beyond These Stone Walls, a blog written by Father Gordon MacRae who has been wrongfully imprisoned for 30 years. Susan Jarvis Bryant
    wrote a poem about him some time ago. Blessings have visited him in prison also but more in the giving, I think.

    Reply
  6. Paul A. Freeman

    Hi, DT. Although I’m often on the receiving end of those ‘little arguments’, the SCP has been invaluable to my learning the ins and outs of formal poetry – from every poet I’ve read here.

    I do however, write free verse. Amongst other things, it helps me in deepening my prose writing.

    Good luck to you, and keep on subbing. One editor’s trash is another editor’s treasure, as you’ll discover.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      “Receiving end?” Your many comments on record show you starting these arguments and, like now, blaming everyone except yourself. Since Mr. Holt reads them, he knows this as well as I do.

      Reply
  8. Margaret Coats

    Thank you, Mr. Holt, for your letter, and thanks to Evan Mantyk for reading it as worthy to be published in the Essay category. It is encouraging to me as one of those who read a fair number of old books on poetic practice, and tried to give each the attention it deserved–although my perspective was generally to read more and more poetry than theory.

    I happily recall your appearance here a year ago. Best wishes to you as your reading and writing and publications increase!

    Reply
  9. Rohini

    This is so moving and wonderful. Although not incarcerated, I too have felt, enjoyed, and learnt an immense amount through the liberating experience of participating in The SCP. Your lessons alone have allowed me to learn and try out other poetic forms. Since this seems the right time to express my gratitude, here it is: thank you, Evan and everyone else. And, thank you, D.T. Holt for creating a space for me to do so.

    Reply
  10. Sally Cook

    Dear Mr. Holt —
    Thanks for including me in those who have helped to influence you.
    That’s a long letter , and a somewhat awkward and verbose one, but I can see why. –
    You must have a very devoted mother- please thank her for watching out for you. So many have no one.
    Keep on writing and publishing; I will be watching for more of your work; I know others will, too.

    Reply
  11. Linda Marie Hilton

    what a well written letter!!!
    take heart, if you can learn the strictures of
    traditional poetry, you can also learn to
    create while remaining inside the box,
    or in your case a cube,
    i am glad to hear that poetry has
    had a good influence on you.

    Reply
  12. Shamik Banerjee

    Dear Mr. Holt, I am deeply touched by your letter. Although we haven’t met, reading your words felt like listening to you directly. What an incredible journey! From your testimony, the tremendous power of perseverance and belief and how they can change a man is evident. Your sincerest appreciation for Evan and the Society as a whole is very touching and, simultaneously, inspiring. Many praises to your mother for sending those books, essays, and other materials that are building up your craft. We all have our tunnels and lights, and I’m happy to know that poetry has been that light for you, just like it is for many of us. Wishing you many years of innumerable achievements, including writing poetry, recognition, and, above all, contentment. Keep well and keep writing. I hope to read more poems of yours.

    Reply
  13. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    DT, it is a privilege to hear of the positive effect poetry has had on your life. I thoroughly enjoyed “The Window Seat” and look forward to reading more of your work. Thank you too for your appreciation of my work. Poetry has played a significant role in my life… a life that wouldn’t be as beautiful without it. It’s wonderful to hear of your mother’s encouragement on the poetry front – keep reading, keep writing, and may the wonder of words be with you always.

    Reply
  14. David Whippman

    D T Holt, thank you for your honesty. Your lack of self-pity speaks of moral courage. I’m glad that poetry has been an inspiration and a comfort for you. With all good wishes.

    Reply
  15. Deborah

    I have forwarded your comments and inspiring, supportive well-wishes to DT.

    Reply
  16. Adam Sedia

    Stories like these are wonderful to hear. Not much shocks me anymore, but to read a well-composed prison letter from someone who used the opportunity not only to reform, but actually to write poetry — that is something I hardly dreamed possible today. Is there any better testament to the redeeming power of poetry?

    Reply
  17. C.B. Anderson

    Your virtual escape from prison should be a lesson for us all, D.T. And I would encourage you to read “To Althea,…” by Richard Lovelace.

    Reply
  18. Joshua C. Frank

    Wow, D.T., what a heartfelt and inspiring letter!

    Reply
  19. Euphrates Moss

    To Evan Mantyk and Mr. Holt,

    I would like to address this letter first to Mr. Holt with simply some brief words of encouragement made pragmatically and in the strictest sense of applicability. Mr. Holt, you’ve got greater tools for poetry than you think you have. Take those lessons you’ve learned and follow those rules in this paradigm. Forge your way through rejection and I believe you’ll come out the other side with a wildly original and fascinating new voice in poetics.

    Then, when you’ve mastered your craft, break the rules in all the correct ways and places and I think you will have ascended that throne you seek or to put it another way you’ll have earned the laurels to crown yourself with.

    To Evan, I also appreciate the aesthetics of this publication and after being encouraged to purchase a copy I read through the whole thing and was very impressed. I spent a few days in jail after a violent occurrence at 22 and afterwards suffered a nervous breakdown so you could say there are some parallels between my life and Mr. Holt’s. I started writing poetry at age 21 and I’m glad to say it hasn’t earned me a dime. But my artistic life is in full bloom and I ended up using that experience as grist for my mill writing about much more of it in Telos and Other Pscyhographs, which was a watershed moment in my creative life.

    I’ve even had a number of reviews of it both good and bad where people either loved it or hated it with nothing in between. That’s the kind of attention I was going after in a book dense with references, allusions, wordplay, and literally any trick I could fit in there. What happens when everybody knows you’re on to something but nobody knows what to make of it? You guessed it, accusations of insanity start to fly. I don’t talk the way I write my poetry at all, though. I talk more like Bukowski or Hemingway.

    Meanwhile the fine words that dazzle and sometimes bewilder come from Joyce but not as much as one would think. Actually the precepts for Telos and Other Psychographs are This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Moby Dick, and even Thus Spake Zarathustra by Nietzsche. All I know is that for me personally the needle has to be pushed forward in some way or another and if you’re not doing that you’ve failed as an artist though you can still succeed as a hack like Sir John Betjeman. By the way, he’s an admitted hack so don’t get the pitchforks out for me. Do so for him.

    Lastly, I’d like to recommend to both of you, Evan and Mr. Holt. read Robert Frost and this recommendation goes out to the SCP readership at large. Frost always combined an awareness of where he came from with a wisdom always beyond his years, though he started at the youngest of ages- 41!

    God bless,
    ~Euphrates Moss

    Reply

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