Postscript

There are some questions one should know by heart.
A world without them must be shadowless.
Who was it said, Come let us kiss and part?

The one who asked, Why is this apple tart?
And dreamed the serpent was the letter S?
There are some questions one should know by heart.

It was the thorn that plotted to outsmart
The cunning of the rose with such success.
Who was it said, Come let us kiss and part?

Donald Justice discusses Henri Coulette

[Weldon Kees and Coulette] have sufficient formal skills--Coulette especially; I think that is important, though currently not valued as it should be. And these skills enable them to deal with American life with great acuity and penetration--and both do so, brilliantly at times; and even when they are not brilliant, they are believable and honest. You would get a fair sense of the American society of their time from reading their poems. You might not know so much about their private lives, and that would be just as well, say I.

Tad Richards on Poets and Poetry

No one would choose to have the pulped remains of an important book as his escutcheon. Yet it seems hauntingly appropriate for Coulette, a poet of messages not received, or secret agents and secret agendas, whose words spoke under the radar screen of their time, but clearly and with emotional precision.