>>No, that's not 'just the way it is'.
Well, we can only imagine a vote whereby
those who pine for the days when they could shell out £7 for the
latest Tobias Hill slimmy which looked like a 60p pocket book can tick one
box, the rest of us the other.
>>Enlisting 'an off-list poet' to make
anonymous comments based on a misunderstanding of what I said is pretty
desperate.
Okay. Hang head in shame and all that. I
should have asked her / his permission. I didn't consider the
strategical propriety, I just thought the comment was an interesting third
viewpoint, neither yours or mine, but you're right about that
'always'. Good work does slip through the net.
>>'Struggling on £10,000 a year" is
something a lot of people, poets and otherwise, have to do. A lot of people
have to make do with less. I don't want anyone to go short, but you didn't
have to join. 'Working poets'? That sounds like the aesthetics
of Oi, or of Me and My Pals, or even The Daily Mail. Please reconsider your
formulation before tunring into Gary Bushell.
By working poet, I'm sure you realise I mean
those who also teach, review, edit and so on - a path you've been
successfully treading far longer than I have. Anyhow, for debatable
political aesthetics and Me and My Pals, might I direct you to the brilliant
(but occasionally maddening) The Deregulated Muse by O'Brien, S
(Bloodaxe). It's true though that, as a seldom-shaving gentlemen of
near-leisure, I do look worryingly like Bushell some days. Fear of '
Me and My Pals' syndrome is one of the biggest sticks in poetry. You
can get people to admit to filthy fetishes quicker than to any mild pangs
for factionalism and elitism. But as Bob sang, "Well, I'm
liberal, but to a degree..."
Anyway this is decreasingly about OUP and
more about testing how much badinage I can pursue before the master throws
me to the mat. I'd like to respond to comments by you and Mark on
subsidies, but I have something to finish today, so that will have to be
anon.
best
Roddy