My pleasure Luke & yes Muldoon can cross the serious/popular divide with real skill. His venture of a travelling multi media show went down well with the public & not many could pull that off. Poetry readings without music or virtually empty venues or bad acoustics can be tedious for the audience.
Thanks Sean> Collins or MuldoonCollins isn't to my taste -- at all, but I respect how Muldoon seems to work the serious /. popular divide.LukeA good question regarding the most famous living poet Luke and a tough one to answer definitely in 2019. On a Wikipedia page simply write your own but a chapbook may well suit before a Collected appears.I wrote since I was fairly young Luke but only came out of the closet in 1982 and none of my early work remains. Everything from 1981-1989 I almost have copies of but of course i lost poems along the way. The rest I have with me with some online if one googles & a fair amount is on my Facebook notes. A lot of these poems work in progress with a lot I find unsatisfactory requiring revision but I may never get around to it.The only published chapbook Free Range emerged in 2009 and received one review by the excellent Peter Riley*. It sold two copies plus whatever the publisher sent out to his then catalogue list from Spectacular Diseases Press. I have copies but they linger in a cupboard as I grew weary of giving out free copies or instead of sale book exchange. Nor do I know what value this stock holds in market terms as I have not checked going rates for Spectacular Diseases titles. I am unsure if SD still exists as a press and the book’s introduction is by Peter O’ Leary with an afterword by myself. End of plug & no self pity as we all get what we deserve.Main point with a chapbook promote & network & do regular readings none of which I did myself Luke. Make yourself visible on all poetic platforms & plug yourself at every opportunity. Fame will not come to you if you feel it is a direct result of publication & minnows matter little to the well known movers & shakers.On to fame and the most famous living poet? The passing of Mary Oliver & Toni Morrison showed their popularity and also Maya Angelou’s. In their own way all were internationally appreciated with excellent sales figures. At a recent high profile Irish media funeral Mary Oliver was quoted in a eulogy & I am unsure if Seamus Heaney was mentioned? If he was not it would indicate a shift in a small way but he still of course is widely celebrated.Simon Armitage is known but not famous in a global sense Luke nor indeed Carol Ann Duffy while of the experimentalists Jeremy Prynne certainly is famous. But in naming these poets I am of course being very Eurocentric or focused on these islands away too much. Billy Collins gets a lot of attention and indeed Alice Notley and Charles Bernstein but in decades past we could name poets from many nations as being famous?Have we become more self centred on our islands or is modern poetry less international? That is not your question but merely a reflection from someone who recalls the pre electronic poetry world. But you asked the question & I am trying to answer it & I will have to nominate Billy Collins. He sells well seems to have a solid following & excellent crowds at his readings. Another nominee is Paul Muldoon who has had a very solid career & in his recent mixed media tour he knows how to entertain an audience.Yet if Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian took to poetry they would sell millions of books & command advances to make Stephen King blush with envy. But my final answer is Collins or Muldoon Luke.I wish you well as always*Forthnightly ReviewCheersSeanSent from AOL Mobile Mail
Get the new AOL app: mail.mobile.aol.comOn Friday, 15 November 2019, Luke <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Who is the most famous living poet, now Heaney has died? Is there anyone? Does it matter if there isn't? Simon bloody Armitage? What does it even mean if there isn't any? Obviously there are degrees of it.I would be happy to have a book published. Others, a wikipedia page or collected poems. Some mainstream press obituaries..Just thinking about 'poets', a/ moment.Cheers,Luke
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