The middle east and far east have for centuries treasured their poets and poetry in ways we seldom have in the west.
My sadness with the "game-show" presentation is, as I said, with its stark metaphor of capitalist climbing, the lack of humanity and soul----humanity and soul, which I had thought were the meat of poetry.
On 11 April 2010 09:28, Peter Riley
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I prefer to think that it's a sign that there are still places in the world where poetry is taken seriously, albeit a rather grotesque manifestation. It's more likely to be mocked than praised western-world-wide, and indeed the introductory presentation on that clip already set the tone for it (how weird for poetry to be as popular as ballroom dancing). But this is a product of the climate in which Mahmoud Darwich is an international hero, in which poetry can still be recognised as a real public presence. There's no reason, I think, to assume the poems on this show to be the facile travesties they would be if such a thing took place here.
PR
On 11 Apr 2010, at 13:46, Judy Prince wrote:
Thanks, Cris, I hadn't seen it.
This makes me sad; it's a metaphor for poetry-climbing and unmediated capitalism. And it will be praised worldwide.