Rupe, you are obviously in a good mood. Good. So am I. Here are some
quick, 2 glasses of red wine responses.
1. Do poems exist only on the page? Are poems on the page scripts for
performance? What comes first to the poet - mouth or mark?
No, not necessarily. Ditto. It depends.
2. Do poets build their audiences or is there a Poetry Audience?
Yes, there is a Poetry Audience. I met him once.
3. Poetry is the poor relation to the Arts, so why don't poets
collectively fight to change the relationship?
I don't accept the premise.
4. Why fund poets when the Arts Council could just fund their publishers?
I don't understand the question. By the way, my local council has just
funded someone to write poems on buses. But they are short of paper,
apaprently. I don't understand much at all, come to think of it.
5. Surely, poets are always in competition with each other because of the
plethora of poetry competitions?
Um....
6. Poetry is just therapy and 'self help?' - Shades of Don Paterson
For some, for sure. But you only have to read the first lines of those
poems, then you can escape and do something else.
7. If poetry is such a 'high art form,' why so many amateurs? - Shades of
Don Paterson
Good question. But the last time I addressed it, and wrote an essay that
was published somewhere, I upset half the country's Literature Officers
because I was, apparently, showing great disrespect to those "amateurs".
8. The academic study of poetry requires the 'text' - to analyse its form
and structure, let alone its content and context. So, can a poem ever
escape its preconceived analysis?
Don't worry about stuff like this. Poems should be above it.
9. Is poetry just a closed circuit? Do poets dance? Do their poems dance?
No. But usually it acts like it is. Yes, poets do dance. I saw you once.
Rarely.
10. What has a DJ 'scratcher' to do with poetry?
Pass.
Much love
Martin
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