Oh, payment... Well, we've truly as much right to be paid as anyone
else for our work, so let's take it where it's available and
comparatively clean, and let's not be under any illusions that our
work is more "valid" because it has/hasn't been paid for. But let's
also be realistic - we're not going to stop doing it just for lack of
payment, and, at the other end, anyone who's in the poetry bizz at any
level for the big money is a pretty sad case. The limits - for the
most part - aren't that wide.
As for the notional career structure of fellowships and creative
classes and admin of one kind or another, it's genrally as much
hardworking grind and precarious as many others (say, libraries), so
I'd say most of these folks earn their money. I'm as sceptical as
anyone about the extent to which some of these careers might generate
a better poetry, or improvements in the lot of poets, but that's not
the point.
In the UK the poetry "career structure" (if we're to keep calling it
that) is so small that the limited openings continue to be largely
closed to most. That could lead to bitterness, but I'd suggest that,
having made our choices, it shouldn't. I could've been a newgen poet,
honest, if I'd wanted to, but...
In the US (for instance) the openings appear (from this distance)
more, and more varied, with a higher proportion of - uh - innovatives
getting a look-in (there may be some "grass-is-greener" in this
assessment...). But I bet that doesn't stop them bitching about lack
of resources etc...
RC
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