GREAT INTERIORS, WINES AND SPIRITS OF THE WORLD was written in Battersea, London in 1973. I wanted to write a second sonnet sequence, having written 165 MEETING HOUSE LANE, which was heavily influenced by the later sonnets of Edwin Denby. To make this one different, I tried elongating the line (Edwin’s diction is clipped), though reverted from time to time to medium-length lines and sometimes short ones. It was summer and Ted and I, with baby Anselm, were renting a room in someone’s apartment, in a brick tower block near Battersea Park.
I remember very little else about this experience. The poems were subsequently published in OUT THERE 4 (1974). OUT THERE was associated with Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago and edited by Neal Hackman (later Ravi Singh, the yogi.) The issue was a special “Alice Notley issue” and had a knockout cover by Rochelle Kraut. Neal did all the work: typing, proofreading, collating. In the course of all this activity he of course made some mistakes.

Most egregious typos:
Listed by first line of each poem.

Poem beginning with “You’re getting more mellifluous”
line 11, “(hopefully)” not “Ihopeuflly)”

Poem beginning with “Will you be so kind as to pay my rent to the concierge?”
line 4, “Reverdy-Rivera”
last line “remarkably”

Poem beginning with “No space! my body’s lost its knack of its”
line 6, “MOSAIC”

Poem beginning with “Among the things for which a woman of honor should be”
line 11,“praise!”

Poem beginning with “She is a disputable beauty”
line 4 should read “I hope you continue beautiful”