Barry, eager for your Smithsonian-given URL for Joe's works; my googling
gave some biog info, some photos, some philosophy.

Your brick's well-aimed, and Kosuth may be a portion of 'the solution'. But
tell me more of what you witnessed that made you so smitten with the
technique[s], as more effective than poets reading their work.

Poetry reads need help; that's for sure.

I keep thinking, as I think YOU are thinking, that BAU [business as usual]
needs a quick burial. What will bring more folks to hear/see poems?

1) Take it to folks for free: poetry postcards, poetry-contest giveaways
such as poetried t-shirts, poetried post-its, tiny poetry notebooks----all
cheaply produced and happily given out at schools, bookstores, libraries,
street corners, and poetry venues.

2) Poetry Fairs where beginners can read to beginners with a couple
published poets to answer their questions: in homes, schools, libraries,
museums, pubs, restaurants, and street markets.

3) Poets Publishing Poets: Using home, school, university, library or
sponsoring poetry presses' equipment, beginners and experienced poets of all
ages, together or individually, produce printed, distributable and saleable
poetry pamphlets, t-shirts, postcards, post-its, or notebooks.

A lot of this is already being done or has been done. Some isn't. None of
this is rocket science, none requires government grants, and all of it or
bits of it will bubble up and happen if somebody somewhere starts it.

Best, and glad for the heads-up,

Judy

2008/10/30 Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]>

> I'll throw a metaphorical brick at poetry:
>
> The lecture/talk with slides by the conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth which I
> witnessed this
> past Tuesday made most presentations by poets seem very minor indeed. And
> his media
> can best be described as words. I'll provide the URL for the podcast when
> the
> Smithsonian makes it available, but for now a google search may give you a
> sense of his
> work.
>
> There were no poets (that I recognized) in the audience.
>
>
> Barry Alpert
>
>
> On Thu, 30 Oct 2008 10:41:50 +0000, David Bircumshaw
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> >How about throwing bricks at poetry?
> >
> >2008/10/30 Patrick McManus <[log in to unmask]>:
> >> Dave take up bricklaying and poetry !!!
> >> Bricklaying courses for the more mature student
> >> The answer
> >> Cheers Patrick
> >>
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> On
> >> Behalf Of David Bircumshaw
> >> Sent: 30 October 2008 01:01
> >> To: [log in to unmask]
> >> Subject: Re: anthologists
> >>
> >> I'll try to elaborate something Candice: of late I have developed a
> >> morbid fear of being seen as A Poet. Crudely put, among middle-class
> >> people it tends to awake a feeding frenzy in psychological vampires,
> >> while among lower-class people it triggers nihilistic crudity in
> >> limerick rhymes. I hate the pretension of vocation, for me it's a
> >> burden I wish I never had, I would much rather have been a bricklayer,
> >> for example, like my dad, at least it's a honest job. Poetry is
> >> magnificent, at times, yes, and it also sucks, it's full of phonies,
> >> it's all too much a picture of Us, the supremely misnamed homo sapiens
> >> sapiens.
> >>
> >> The very crude snap I posted earlier has perked my interest again: I
> >> would like to find a way to write rant that is aesthetically
> >> satisfying at the same time too, a kind of formalisation of fury,
> >> examples from the last century, such as Howl or the Usura Canto don't
> >> really work, the Jacobeans could do it at times, but that was their
> >> language, so I'm going to plot the development of a new form: the
> >> Gibberhell (I've decided to drop the the final 'e') More later.
> >>
> >>
> >> Best
> >>
> >> Dave
> >>
> >> 2008/10/30 MC Ward <[log in to unmask]>:
> >>> As you like, David, though on a Universal scale maybe we should be
> talking
> >> about remaining terrors.
> >>>
> >>> Bestest,
> >>> Candice
>