Tomorrow I completely sign away the time I now have (in Whitman's formulation), "to loaf, and observe a spear of grass". So it remains to be seen how I can muster up the force to write, yes, write in the middle of what will be long working days. Besides I have good reason to believe that the subject matter that I will be immersed in - finance, business "strategery" etc - won't lend themselves to any literary activity except, perhaps, numerous fun games of buzzword bingo. However, I was re-reading Dana Gioia's essay "Business and Poetry" from his book "Can Poetry Matter?" earlier, in order to remind myself that there have been precursors, such as T.S. Eliot or Wallance Stevens, who have sucessful managed to walk the rope between the world of commerce and the world of writing; yes, by being very very serious about their literary vocation, and working long hours after long working hours. Gioia boils down the essence of this essay, in the following answer to an interviewer's question:

CV: In your essay "Business and Poetry," in which you create an intriguing exploration of such poets as T. S. Eliot, Wallace Stevens, James Dickey, and others who sustained themselves and their families in business careers, you pose the question: "How did their business careers affect the lives and works of these poets?" This issue has personal relevance to you. Would you answer the same question you posed in your essay? How has your experience in the business world affected your literary work?

Gioia: My years in business offered at least two advantages. First, they allowed me to develop as a poet at my own pace and in my own way. I had no pressure to publish or need to conform to any academic or intellectual fashion. I made my own necessary mistakes and discoveries. Working in isolation, my most intense literary relationships were with the great dead, the most demanding and yet attentive colleagues. Had I stayed at Harvard I would have been too vulnerable to the many captivating influences around me. Neglect, obscurity, and loneliness are the necessary nourishment of a young poet.

Second, working in business greatly broadened my life experience. It permitted me-indeed forced me-to see the world and literature from a different angle than I had in graduate school. Working with intelligent but non-literary people for nearly twenty years made me conscious of the cultural elitism I had acquired at Stanford and Harvard. I no longer took certain assumptions for granted. Most important, I understood the importance of writing in a way that does not exclude intelligent people.

Consequently, Buoyantville won't be having many fresh posts from now on - I would be spending the free time I have reading books, and attempting to salvage poems from the nearly five hundred pieces I have dumped here so far. If anything, I may try using some of the surrealist technqiues such as "Dream Resume", "Latent News" (using Wall Street Journal editorials) or automatism in the loo as I try to hit the ground reasonably awake by 7.00 AM. Watch this space...