James Franco: thinking about Spencer Reece, reading Mark Doty

So the actor/writer/impresario says to Screen Comment:

Is “The Clerk’s Tale” a defeatist poem? Are we isolated and lonely according to Reece?

JF - I don’t think it’s defeatist. Spencer Reece worked for Brooks Brothers for thirteen years. I think some of that time was a dark period for him. He said his poetry was rejected over 300 times. But some of that time was also rejuvenating. Much of the power of the poem comes from the even-handed delivery. There is both quiet pain and quiet strength. Whenever I talked to Spencer about adapting the poem he would emphasize the responsibility I had of truthfully telling about these characters’ lives. I think that truth, or at least the truth of the experience described in the poem, comes from this balance of distress and poise.