TAKE TWO POEMS AND CALL US

As one dedicated to poetry composition, and recently inducted into the International Society of Poets at their convention and symposium, I found a faulty assumption in the Book Review section most repugnant and misleading (“Anne Sexton: A Biography,” Aug. 25).

Reviewer Nancy Mairs noted “the roster of modern poets dead by their own hands--among them Delmore Schwartz, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roethke, John Berryman--who communicated to the following generation the belief that, in writing poetry, they courted death.”

Why blame poetry writing or study for their self-destruction? There are many factors involved in a person’s desire to end life. From the review, it is quite evident that the unfortunate poet Anne Sexton abused herself in more ways than one, including sex, alcohol and “substance abuse.” Suicidal tendencies are known to develop from a combination of such factors. One’s potential is quite easily destroyed by such behavior patterns and addiction.

Dr. Jack J. Leedy lists 25 poems in stating the “health value of poetry.” He quotes literary giant Robert Graves, who said, “A well- chosen anthology is a dispensary of medicine for the common mental disorders and may be used as such for prevention as well as a cure.”

So let’s not discourage budding poets from composing poetry by faulty conclusions or beliefs.

C. ANTONIO PROVOST, OCEANSIDE