>You know I have no idea, David. This year I haven't written much (except in
a collaboration). Other years I'vr managed quite a bit. And look at the
other Douglas, insisting he has nothing to write, but there are all those
past ones, & the new one saying I can't write, but he does (don't you
Douglas?) while listening, again, to Dylan..
Doug<
Actualmente, Doug, I have a lot of sympathy for the 'other Doug' on this.
I've noticed an alarming decline in the quality of my own writing in recent
months, the roots of this are tangled, all sorts of personal stuff seems
involved, as well as a sense of depression about the current cultural
situation, something which manifests itself to me in very direct ways, it's
not an abstract concern. It's as if I've had the stuffing knocked out of me,
it seems as if the antithesis of the creative has won the day. Last night
someone who has just moved into Arts Admin (at the age of 22) was lecturing
me about my lack of marketing nous, poetry is 'a product' she told me and if
I only contacted this number I would be given sound business advice on
furthering my work. I used to hold to the illusion that poetry was a
'protected space' free of the deadly forces of greed and money but now I
feel that it is becoming just another part of the 'system'.
Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Barbour" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, November 26, 2002 2:36 PM
Subject: Re: Numbers
>The other day I printed out and read through all the poems I have written
>this year. It hasn't been quite so productive as some years, the grand
total
>was 18 poems, but 4 of them struck me as being in the direction I want. It
>occurred to me too that about 4 to 6 poems a year of which one is
reasonably
>happy is a good 'strike rate' and I wondered what the opinions of others on
>this might be. Obviously I am thinking of an overall average here, lucky
>streaks can happen!
You know I have no idea, David. This year I haven't written much (except in
a collaboration). Other years I'vr managed quite a bit. And look at the
other Douglas, insisting he has nothing to write, but there are all those
past ones, & the new one saying I can't write, but he does (don't you
Douglas?) while listening, again, to Dylan..
Doug
Douglas Barbour
Department of English
University of Alberta
Edmonton Alberta Canada T6G 2E5
(h) [780] 436 3320 (b) [780] 492 0521
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/dbhome.htm
Is that the flesh made word
or is that the flesh-made word?
Fred Wah
|