I obviously empathise with your Christmas dormouse husband Jane! I do half
a week teaching those with severe learning needs and that near kills me.
All is a struggle, yes. I think what I was trying to say is that poets work
in a lot of different ways. For myself publication is not a priority.
Rather, I either work in collaboration with visual artists, musicians,
actors, directors and other writers on event projects; or I offer myself for
specific residencies. And teaching clashes with this work over the weeks. Do
I chuck in teaching for a residency? That's forever my balancing act.
Though I live this contradictory breeze now, I was for many years a worker
by day and a writer by night. In considering 'money' and its lack in the
arts per se and in poetry in the particular, I'm posing notions that we (not
I) need more money in every sphere of poetry.
For example: do we read for free? Read for expenses? Or for £50, £100, £500?
Money holds us back - but hell, it also keeps us alive.
The huge UK Lottery funds will now be ploughed into the UK 2012 Olympics -
instead of playing fields and poetry. What chance have we got?
Still, it's a good year so far!
Best, Rupert
***
Yes, Happy New Year to you, Rupert, and to everyone else! My husband - a
secondary school
teacher - was pure dormouse for most of the past fortnight too. Alas, with
five children on board,
only one of us can be a dormouse. Grrr.
Absolutely right about the £175 ACE recommendation. But if you're asking how
we poets manage
to make a living in general when not receiving such a dizzily high sum of
money, all I can say is,
we don't. Well, I don't, anyway. I do my unpaid housewife & mother thing 75%
of the time and my
writer/poet/novelist thing when the kids are asleep. Which is not often
enough, in my opinion.
More laudanum! So we live off my husband's steady wage and buy new shoes for
the kids only
when I manage to sell something. Which is, again, not often enough! It can
be a struggle. But it
beats working on the check-out, let's face it.
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