I have always had a problem with the introductions for poets at readings
and with blurbs on book covers or advertising material. No doubt there have
been occasions when I have felt interested in the puffs and comments, but
those are not the ones I remember. I remember the excruciatingly
embarrassing ones (golf club style or extended rambles more to do with the
introducer's self promotion than introduction of the poet in question).

When I first read Nicholas Johnson's comment on Raworth in the Six Towns
leaflet, I interpreted the word >foil< as >foil to star Kathy Acker< and
was shocked. After discussion I realised he had meant >foil< as in rapier
sharp, nothing to do with KA. That only relieved some of the shock, of
course, about the >belly-up Jurassic stereotypes beyond send up<.

This is not to disagree with cris on the bizarre >reductio ad absurdum< of
a poet's work to 5 words (let alone the misrepresentation inevitable).
Though again, publicity material aimed to snare the unwary of Stoke on
Trent, who do not yet know they would be interested in a poet, is different
from a considered examination. The aim might be to do both jobs, but it is
hard enough to promote work (books/readings) and when you have a client
base (ha!) which is split into >the great washed public< and the poets, it
is even harder to pitch your sale.

Talking about sales pitches:

A DIGRESSION MASQUERADING AS A QUOTE
>
>The next words worth is about to go to press (at last). It has grown
>alarmingly. And I am mad to be doing it in the way I am, but there we go.
>Advance orders would be MOST helpful, especially institutions at the
>higher rates. Double issue (c.200pp) £9 plus £2 p&p (institutions £27 - I
>have to try and finance it from somewhere! no grant aid yet); outside EU
>treble the postage; currencies other than sterling treble price as well.
>
>words worth language arts 2:2/2:3 double issue
>co-editor (in part*) Richard Tabor
>Work includes: Ernst Jandl (tr Michael Hamburger), >Out of Estrangement<;
>Henri Chopin*; Caroline Bergvall; Robert Clark (colour); Mac Wellman;
>Ellen Zweig*; Jon Gibson*; Nicholas Johnson; Peter Finch; Susan Smith
>Nash; Paul Green; Glenda George; Richard Kostelanetz*; Carlyle Reedy;
>Lawrence Upton; cris cheek; Tom Raworth (including hand colouring on each
>copy)*; Brigid Mcleer (colour)*; PA Sheils. (* accepted after Tabor ceased
>contact with words worth)
>
>Single issue (c.100pp) £4.50 plus £1p&p (inst £15) outside EU treble the
>postage; currencies other than sterling treble price as well.
>
>words worth language arts 2:1
>co-editor Richard Tabor
>includes: dom sylvester houédard, Susan Hiller, Bernard Noel, Bernard
>Heidsieck, Mac Wellman, Paul Buck, Jean-Luc Parant, Jean-Marie Mathoul,
>Carlyle Reedy, Jackson Mac Low.
>
>A few copies of issues 1:1 (edited with PJ King and H. Burke) and 1:3 from
>the 1970s are still available.
>These include work from dom sylvester houédard (KO revolution), Peter
>Mayer, Glenda George, Peter Finch, Robert Shepherd, cris cheek, Carlyle
>Reedy, EE Vonna Michell, Opal L Nations, John Wilkinson. The issue 1:2,
>edited with Paul Buck and PJ King, sold out.
>I have heard these are selling at £7 each second hand. I will undercut
>this at £5 plus £1 postage!
>
>I would also like to mention there are still copies of >Obituaries and
>Celebrations (early poems and more recent work) by CARLYLE REEDY<
>available. Hardback with an original unique small visual event pasted into
>each copy, all signed and numbered. £9.95 plus £1.00 p&p Though I says it
>as shouldn't, it really does HANDLE nice (Carlyle and I both like it; some
>might think it too tidy/conventional poetry book style?); and the writing
>has been widely appreciated (including on this list by Ric), though only
>reviewed (very enthusiastically by Tilla Brading) in PQR as far as I can
>tell.

My particular passion in Carlyle's book is for the little shard poems
worked like jagged jewels, which insert themselves in my mind and stick
there glittering.

And this leads me back to distribution, advertising, and writing blurbs:

I tried advertising in LRB once (just to see what would happen) and got one
sale (ie a negative balance (ha!) of about £40). I have just advertised in
Performance Research and got two so far.

There are also questions which I hear frequently about funding of readings.
There are some which pay fees to the poets. There are some which pay
expenses only. Those who work tirelessly to put on only those sorts of
events for which they know they can get funding and then insert some
surprises could I think perhaps be thanked. But there is an indispensable
other space which is the unfettered space. Those of us who read at the
latter spaces accept its opportunities as well as its short comings.
Otherwise we would not read there. If those people who grumble about lack
of fees care to ask to see the accounts, they might find they are lucky to
get their expenses. On the other hand they might find a fat cat, but I
doubt it.

SVP maybe welcoming for some, but again I have often reminded people of
events going on only to be told that the area of London, the nature of the
pub, the attitudes of the audience, all are off-putting. It has to be a
really exciting writer they already know to tempt some people there.
But since Lawrence says most of the time it is well attended, he must
usually be putting on the people they want to hear and on terms the poets
are happy to abide by.

There are other ways to present the performance of language than the two
poet split reading. There are other spaces. But are there also other ways
to promote this work. >ir<So many of us are concerned with the work and the
innovation within that, that we don't investigate the most interesting and
exciting new marketing strategies, the innovative and experimental methods
that have been developed in the past decades to promote Cakes, Stars, Toys,
Prime Ministers and Princesses.>/ir< We should learn to innovate wildly in
this area too.

If anyone is able to promote events in Spring 1998 (after April), and would
like to visit the Tate Gallery in St Ives on 24th October 1997 between
6.00pm and 6.30pm to see an_ invitation only_ work in progress showing,
being put on for an Arts Council assessor to attend, of a text of mine >The
Unspeakable Rooms<, devised and performed by dancer and vocal performer
Rory McDermott, please contact Mike Tooby (curator) on 01736 796226 for a
formal invite. Offer only open to promoters and venue bookers. The piece
involves projected video, recorded sound, live presence, movement, vocal
patternings and spoken text.

This is quite weird. I've been lurking for ages and now suddenly spew out
all this. I must go back and cower under my stone. It must have been the
Macrobiotic Fu and Ginger with Chinese Leaf last night.

ALARIC SUMNER
words worth language arts
BM Box 4515
London WC1N 3XX




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