Yes, I worry about that word "amateur", aware of its multiplicity of shading
meanings; but there is another worry too.
Staying out of the career stakes may <ir>save one's poetic soul</ir> but it
is not without cost. I am not speaking of financial cost; but the effect on
the pysche, the mental environment within which one writes.
Settlers of any kind distort rather than change the society unless they are
welcome and contribute something.
No matter how lonely the act of writing must, of necessity be, it is also
often a social process being a poet.
The careerists moving in may be good for property values, but it destroys
community
L
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Burke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 15 October 2000 15:13
Subject: Re: amateurs
| >This is so true Lawrence. It's one of the reasons why I think poets
should
| >remain "amateurs."
| >
| >Best
| >C
|
| Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. And yet, when I'm with people who have no
| soul, no rhythm, no music and no wit who trot out what they call poems,
| then I think they are the true amateurs, if the word has to be derogatory.
|
| Wasn't it Pound who said he liked amateur poets, and named ... about three
| poets who I forget, but it certainly wouldn't have included Amy Lowell!
| Maybe it included DHLawrence, Ricahrd Aldington, maybe HD ... Anyone know?
| I think they were listed in Hugh Kenner's 'Pound Era' work. Maybe Marianne
| Moore ... ???
|
| Australian poet Andrew Taylor speaks of the vocation of poetry in an essay
| published in The American Model, a book of essays on the influence of
| American poets on Australians. Galway Kinnell writes an interesting essay
| on Walt Whitman in the same book.
|
| Well, I just started out agreeing with Chris, and now I'm rabbitting on,
| amateur that I am (thank God).
|
| AndrewB
|
| ----------------------------------------
| Andrew Burke Copywriting
| [log in to unmask] Creative Writing
| http://www.bam.com.au/andrew/ Editing
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