Poetry. "This small book has I hope both social and aesthetic content. It argues for the 'truth' of certain experiences, for the possibility that these particulars link to something larger: 'The termination of the world in a man, appears to be the last victory of intelligence. The universal does not attract us until housed in an individual.' That is Emerson, in
The Method of Nature.
If these poems, and essays, have not fully succeeded, I can accept that. I have tried to do a big thing, perhaps beyond my abilities, but, as George Oppen said, 'truth is also the pursuit of it.' This work intends just such a pursuit, and embodies a belief in the largeness of our experiences. The truth of life in a school is a matter of change, resistance, hope, risk, apathy, compassion, understanding, blindness, empathy, defeat, the gap between youth and age, and the natural authority of adults. These, if they can be substantiated in verse, are the reality of life in a school. As such, they belong to poetry, not to discursive prose, or to a spreadsheet read in a central office."—Kip Zegers, from the Introduction to THE POND IN ROOM 218