The Power of One

With regard to your recent article on the National Endowment for the Arts (Calendar, June 23), I am the author of the one-word poem, misprinted in your article without acknowledgment, that was the focus of the 1969 NEA/Congressional ruckus.

For the record, the poem should appear--ideally in the center of an empty space--as follows:

lighght

Should any of your readers be interested in the extraordinary literary and fiscal history of this work, allow me to refer them to my own article, with an introduction by George Plimpton, in the August 1981 issue of Mother Jones, entitled “The Most Expensive Word in History.”

Coincidentally, on the 20th anniversary of the congressional maelstrom, the poem will soon be issued again in a special signed and numbered silk-screen poster edition commissioned by the Paris Review, and available from the magazine.

ARAM SAROYAN

Thousand Oaks