Well, yes. And no. I will say that we've now had two here in Edmonton,
& I was on the, um, jury for both. They have done very good work
reaching out to the schools, helping to start a festival here, or
reaching out to many writer 'we' knew little about in the immigrant
community (weve now had 2 Writers-in-Exile with more to come). They
are both good poets (well, as well as we can tell of anyone; not
necessarily in my tradition but writing well in theirs), & took the
position seriously in terms of bringing poetry into more public regard
in the city. Perhaps that's all we should ask of such today.
I was pleased that in his first small reading to City Council, E.D.
Blodgett had a little trifle poem asking for that 'butt of sack'....
Doug
On 1-May-09, at 10:16 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
> It is true, Jon, that there are such echoes, but at the same time
> there are
> quite a few local or regional 'poet laureates', appointed for varying
> periods by various bodies, such as councils or arts bureaucracies,
> and it
> really is hard to hear any tribal drums echoing about them. It is
> much more
> like the American system for the national laureate, and both dull and
> sometimes of dubious practice.
>
> 2009/5/1 Jon Corelis <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> I think what's really interesting about the idea of a poet laureate
>> is
>> that it's the last, faint echo of a very ancient, and once crucially
>> important, Indo-European institution, the sacred bard, on whom in a
>> very real sense a leader's authority depended on.
>>
>> --
>> ===============================================
>>
>> Jon Corelis http://jcorelis.googlepages.com/joncorelis
>>
>> ===============================================
>>
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> "Nothing can be done in the face
> of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
Douglas Barbour
[log in to unmask]
http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
Latest books:
Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
Wednesdays'
http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
There's the wind and the rain
And the mercy of the fallen
Who say they have no claim to know what's right
Dar Williams
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