Numbers Game

Stan Persky in commenting on an untitled poem by Robin Blaser published in Don Allen's 1960 anthology The New American Poetry writes

At the same time, "a few men will come to mind" has two more meanings that are to be be found in the double sense of the verb "to mind," as meaning both "to attend" and "to object." When the poet pays death's duty, a few of the men and women he knew will come to attend his death. They will be his "minders" at the ceremonies of death, as they were in his life and during the process of his dying. Finally, a few of those he knew will "mind" that he died, that is, they will object to, be troubled by, and mourn his death.

A few of a few is a smaller number. And it is this shrinking that contrasts nicely with the increase in activity: objecting, being troubled, mourning, minding. "Reading Robin Blaser" the essay from which this excerpt is taken appears in Robin Blaser by Stan Persky and Brian Fawcett.

And so for day 825
17.03.2009