Very interesting questions.
To the question: Why do you write, I heard the following answers (which does
not mean I agree with them):
Out of passion; Because poetry is breath for me; To find answers, to give a
perspective to events and facts that goes beyond what is; To make people
mad, ....
have a great day, Anny
On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 3:24 PM, Joseph Duemer <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> "How do we, as poets, sustain the/this vocation?"
>
> Stephen, that, for me, was the most crucial part of your original post, and
> in that post as well as in this follow-up you recognize a set of social
> forces acting on or in relationship to the writing of poetry. On a cosmic
> scale, of course, all our lives are ephemeral. We will die, the sun will
> burn out, the universe collapse (or expand infinitely toward nothingness) &
> in spite of this we cook meals, get married, take jobs, write poems, strive
> for fame, etc. But to say that we write poems only to drop them into the
> abyss seems sophomoric to me -- it's a shallow response. A related response
> is to note the true fact that much (but not all) literary publishing
> depends
> on various minor forms of corruption & so to hell with it. So those books
> you're reviewing -- you're right -- will slide most likely into oblivion.
> What keeps those writers writing? What is the direct payoff? How do they
> continue to write with conviction? Isn't part of "sustaining" a literary
> life having a system of publication & distribution that makes sense? That
> is, isn't publication of some sort part of the way we sustain a writing
> life? "Of some sort" then becomes the thing that needs defining. What sort?
>
> jd
>
>
> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 1:13 PM, Robin Hamilton <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Interesting. Toward the end of my teaching career, my university
> >> accepted my web publications as equal to my 'real'. page-based, ones.
> >>
> >
> > How old are you, Doug, or in which country?
> >
> > For me, even hard-copy counted against me.
> >
> > "Do you find that writing poetry *interferes with your teaching,
> Dr.
> > Hamilton?"
> >
> > Having been turned down for at least four jobs because I wrote poetry, it
> > was hysterically funny to find myself stopped at the Efficiency Bar.
> >
> > {Not that the Suits could actujllly *do anything to me, as I'd already
> > topped the salary limit.)
> >
> > If you write poetry in the UK, you don't just button your mouth but you
> > sew your lips shut.
> >
> > Or it was once.
> >
> > {One of the killers in the UK was "peer reviewed publications". That
> meant
> > poets and dramturges made common cause.
> >
> > Fuck all good it did, and it all went down te tank when the UK Academic
> > Academic Review Exercise decided to exclude reviews.
> >
> > Do you *know how long it takes to write a decemt review if there are
> maybe
> > three people in the ever-loving world who'd bother to read what you say?
> > Same time it takes takes to write a (peer reviewed) article.
> >
> > Natch, the Lost Boys (good on then) promptly stopped writing revew
> articles
> > ...
> >
> > End result is if you read an academic review today, you get what you you
> > pay for -- if you pay monkeys, you get peanuts.
> >
> > Way it goes ...
> >
> > :-(
> >
> > R.
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Joseph Duemer
> Professor of Humanities
> Clarkson University
> Weblog: sharpsand.net
>
--
Anny Ballardini
http://annyballardini.blogspot.com/
http://www.fieralingue.it/modules.php?name=poetshome
http://www.moriapoetry.com/ebooks.html
I Tell You: One must still have chaos in one to give birth to a dancing
star!
