The Cold Tap Sings

‘On a desert island, which strikes me as oxymoronic but the phrase enjoys, I believe, considerable currency, or maybe I confuse it with deserted island, which itself raises a question – namely, has the island once been populated and is only now that you are on it otherwise unpopulated – let us say then on an island all by your own self with nothing to read except one kind of poetry, would you select metaphysical, lyric, language, gift-card, or cowboy poetry?’

Padgett Powell, The Interrogative Mood (Serpent’s Tail)