At 12:34 AM +0000 5/12/2001, Andrew Burke wrote:
>Compression is an element of poetry which I highly admire, so I will stop
>now and let you get on with your day. I'll just ask all of you, How has
>poetry influenced the shape of your life? Was that useful?
It certainly has influenced the shape of my life, Andrew - whether it
was useful or not depends I guess on how you define the term. I am
not, like the cadets I started work with at The Herald, now editing a
major national newspaper or pursuing a successful and well-paid
career in PR or writing speeches for prime ministers, and instead
enjoy an economically unsteady lifestyle which includes no car and no
home ownership. I remember when I resigned in order to write poetry,
the staggerment from my boss: "But Alison, you're doing really well -
we were going to send you to _Canberra_!" (Where the bright young
things were sent on their way up the ladder). That struck me as
ludicrous: why on earth would I find Canberra desirable? And I
remember being lectured in the pub by one of the senior journalists
for throwing away the public responsibility of mass media with such
insouciance.
I haven't, honest, regretted it, though sometimes I wish I had more
money. It never felt like a choice: I was so miserable being unable
to write poems that staying was not an option.
As for the rest: there are uses, yes, for enchantment. Serious as
well as unserious.
Best
A
--
Alison Croggon
Home page
http://users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
Masthead
http://au.geocities.com/masthead_2/
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