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Daily Notes on Poetry
23 July 2004. Big News today: in spite of my blog's only getting a handful of readers each day, it's being read all over the world! This morning I found a response from Holland in my InBox! It was to my Essay on the Nulletter, which I posted on 7 April 2004:
Dear Mr. Grumman
Thinking about a letter like the number zero I started writing a poem called the nulletter. Curious if someone had used that word before I typed it in my googlemachine and (1 find) came across your essay. Very interesting.
I give you the rough translation of the first draft of the poem (the original is in Dutch).
****
looking for the letter
inside the milky glass head of language
for the typesetter:
the nul-letter where the alphabet snaps
not to be defined as a void but as a
between vowel and consonant a wave
between the third leg of the m
and the first of the n
purely a location
like the point where
the rising of the sun
turns into the setting of the sun
undeterminable but existing like the fruitless saying of
NOW
****
The Dutch word cijfer (number) originates from the Arab word sifr� (zero). I wondered why you used nulletter and didn't use zeroletter and thought that maybe that could be a reason. But it's just a guess.
Greetings from Holland
Case
[email protected]
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To which I replied: "Hey, so I'm not the only null-ologist around! Thanks for the poem, Case! It extends the meanings! I'm gong to put your poem into my blog entry for today. Let me know who I should credit it to--(or if you don't want it posted, in which case, I'll remove it).
Fascinating that we had not only the first thought but the same English
term. Is the Dutch or whatever your main language is "null" plus "letter?"
I used "null" partly because "letter" begins with "l." (I wrote this without realizing I hadn't read the part of my correspondent's letter in which he asks about my name for the letter, but inadvertantly answered his inquiry.)
Thanks for writing--all best, Bob
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