Ken, thanks for telling us about Joe Salerno----what a beautiful human
being, and what an honor for you.
Some other places in your message I esp like (have blenderized, so beware
the fits and starts):
> I had my 15 minutes in 1995, New Jersey, same kind of award: State Council
> on the Arts. The nicest reward was a really good poet named Joe Salerno
> coming over to me in Barnes & Noble. He barely knew me personally but by
> then I'd be in Sander Zulauf's magazine and a few others; so he said "I"m
> glad they gave it to someone good." I was touched beyond words. This was
> in July '95. He died around Thanksgiving that year. He knew he was dying
> when we met. Instead of obsessing about his imminent death he gave gifts
> to others. That generosity makes valuable and redemptive this sometimes
> scummy enterprise.
>
>
>>I think contests are a lousy way to assign value to poetry, for a lot of
>>reasons, not least that I think the notion of winers and losers is
>>destructive to the community of poets.
>>
> Take it further: what's a runner-up? What does a runner-up get? Half a
> publication? Payment in Confederate money? A certificate in which he or
> she can roll a real big joint?
>
> How do you proceed when you have no connections in the literary world?
> Self-publish? Pray? Get a copy of Poet's Market, find a dowsing rod, and
> point at the entries with magnetic properties?
>
> Ken, clueless in Princeton
>
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