A letter to me from Dr. David Jaffin dated March 1st answers the query I made about his being influenced by Cid Corman, or the reverse. It says, in part:

“The comparison with Cid Corman is interesting but at the same time limiting. I came across his work via the Elizabeth Press, long after my own style(s) had developed. I do admire his work. What we certainly have in common is: getting to the heart of the matter, short line, clarity, and we are both perhaps the most prolific of poets. Although I know much less of Corman’s poetry than I should, we are in certain ways quite different. I’m a metaphysical poet, perhaps not in the 17th century sense of the word, and my interests run away into other fields: history, Judaism, Christianity, art, music…And there is still a strain of an older tradition in my work as witnessed by In The Glass of Winter. All of those poems were rejected by The Elizabeth Press, which published at the same time As One (1975). Those two books, two sides, plus a shot of German expressionism make up more or less the whole of Jaffin….”

We hope to include sound files of David Jaffin reading his poetry in the near future.