Nothing is really known of Salinger’s poetry, other than his interests in poetry (haiku, Rilke, Eliot, Dickinson, Chinese poetry, etc). Supposedly, in 1945, 15 of his poems were rejected by The New Yorker (according to Wikipedia). I don’t think anything is known about them though (titles, subject matter, etc.). I’m sure many would love to read them.

In 1947, Salinger published a short story in Cosmopolitan called “The Inverted Forest,” about a famous poet named Ray Ford. Only one line of his work, from a collection called “The Cowardly Morning,” was shared in the story:

“Not a wasteland, but a great inverted forest
with all the foliage underground.”

Ford was not a war poet though. The story takes place before WWII.

Adam Gopnik raises the point during the talk that Hemingway gave American writers permission to be taciturn and thin-lipped, while Salinger gave American writers permission to show their hearts (I’m paraphrasing here).

I wonder then, if Hemingway is thought to have exhibited any evidence of haiku in his writing, given that he pared everything down in a haiku-like way?

where does this leave us? how then is it symbolic? for what?

earlier in the discussion, i wasn’t speaking of my own interpretation of children, or anyone else’s, any or all readers’, or how *i*, necessarily, personally feel about “them”, but of Seymour’s (maybe even of Salinger’s—children and innocence being a major theme of his work), of the character’s—or at least my interpretation of how Seymour might feel towards/about them in general (interestingly enough, Salinger’s last published work, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” was a letter written by Seymour as a child from camp to his family, the piece showing readers clearly that Seymour was never, in a sense, really a child).

i think Lorin was onto something when she noted that the poem might have to do with Seymour’s “irresovlable problems with ‘woman’.” i think perhaps it goes deeper than that. more of a spiritual thing, if you will (though he clearly had wife problems and had written a double-haiku about a woman, not unlike his wife, his brother Buddy tells us, who comes home from a tryst only “to find a balloon on her bedspread” (“Seymour—An Introduction,” p128-9). then again, the poem is open to many different interpretations. which is precisely the point of it i think—to have a poetic opening which is ambiguous that deepens with each piece of the Glass family story. hopefully, in the coming years we’ll be given more pieces and the story will continue to unfold.

while i did make a large generalization that needs much defense, i think most every story Salinger wrote relies in some way on making haiku (and Japanese and Chinese poetics and poetry), or at least an understanding and appreciation for it, central for both advancing his stories, and characters, as well as his themes. it’s not *the* key, or only key. just *a* key. and an important one. we should also keep in mind—and i never see this pointed out—that “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” and the Glass family in general was conceived by Salinger before, if not simultaneously, as Holden/Catcher (“just a moment in time”). “A Perfect Day…” was actually published *before* The Catcher in the Rye. so, we can’t refer to these Glass stories or his interest in haiku/Japanese and Chinese poetry/poetics as appearing in his later work. it was all there from the beginning. it was *all* his “early” work. his later work we have yet to see. though, supposedly, there is much to see.

http://www.charlierose.com/