Gotcha!
Yes, the market's flooded, while at the same time it can be difficult to get
hold of stuff one wants (like Conductors of Chaos).
Someone was +enthusing+ about a recent piece of mine last Friday night
(lucky me) and asked where I was going to send it. I answered: 'There isn't
anywhere'.
2009/6/3 Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]>
> Stephen wrote: >As much as I think right now the practice of poetry has
> become a mix of saturation and disconnect by us makers of the stuff.<
> I can't
> parse this."
>
> Yes, David, that sentence don't read too good! Short hand is, "the
> market's flooded!" And, hopefully not to overstate, I find it's hard to
> manage either a critical view, or a way into making one's presence felt,
> defined or given much in the way of public weight
>
> People do try. Ron Silliman's review today of Notes on Conceptualisms by
> Vanessa Place & Rob Fitterman (Ugly Duckling Press) is a look at some kind
> of attempt to define the most contemporary landscape, as well as the power
> struggles within that territory. I suspect for many here the book's concerns
> will estrange. At least it has an edge to it that may be useful in provoking
> some thoughts one way or the other. Healthy I think.
>
> I appreciate what Alison put into the mix here - tho I find confusing the
> willingness to go with different kinds of responses to the genres of
> writing( poetry versus fantasy versus theater). Alison, I suspect many of
> us would crave for our poems the attention you get from your fans in the way
> they go over your sentences, etc. (When my poems are discussed in classes,
> wrong headed or not, I appreciate hearing the different kinds of attention
> and often learn from it). On the other hand, Pound,good Mandarin, was
> happy in the Cantos to settle for a small, critically bright. educated
> audience and never expected or wanted more.
>
> Jumping out here, I'd say we are in a weird period/ space where the
> language(s) are suddenly not solidly rooted in any space. Print on Demand,
> Online publication, the death of most literary magazines, etc., etc. has
> shaken things up in which practically anything goes and stops at the same
> time! The struggle to find how to put things back on some kind of stable and
> mutually accepted playing field seems to be the art of the present!
> My sense, at least in my local backyard, poets are struggling and working
> to figure that out.
>
> Stephen
> http://stephenvincent.net/blog/ V
>
>
> --- On Wed, 6/3/09, David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: David Bircumshaw <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 12:26 AM
>
> Stephen wrote: >As much as I think right now the practice of poetry has
> become a mix of saturation and disconnect by us makers of the stuff.<
> I can't
> parse this.
>
>
> 2009/6/2 Stephen Vincent <[log in to unmask]>
>
> > Ah, yes, Martin. EKB is a West Indian that I read and very much liked. I
> > think he is no longer with us, as well!! Walcott I have read little
> because
> > there was not much impulse to read more. An ambitious emulative "iam
> pentam"
> > colonial subject, methought. Which probably fit the officially desired
> > Oxford "Professor" template, I suspect.
> > No, I have been around a lot of, in my opinion, great poetry written by
> > 'ungreat' people who are of and have connected across various classes. As
> > much as I think right now the practice of poetry has become a mix of
> > saturation and disconnect by us makers of the stuff. As much as I try
> also
> > to remain connected and connect, etc.
> > And I am blessed to
> live in a City and region where a ton of poets and
> > poetry stuff happens - readings, talks, etc.
> >
> > Stephen V
> > http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --- On Tue, 6/2/09, Martin Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> > From: Martin Walker <[log in to unmask]>
> > Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Date: Tuesday, June 2, 2009, 2:13 AM
> >
> > Bra(i)thwaite, Stephen? Methinks you got your West Indians mixed up ;-).
> > Edward Kamau B. is as you say not so well known, but in the poetry world
> > Derek Walcott has
> been much read and fêted. And has poetry ever - at least
> > since bardic times - been much more than a diversion of the clerisy &
> > purveyors of high-class entertainment to the ruling caste, he asked
> > wickedly?
> > mj
> > Du siehst mein Sohn, zum Raum wird hier die Zeit. - Gurnemanz
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Stephen Vincent
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Sent: Tuesday, June 02, 2009 3:06 AM
> > Subject: Re: "Previously unpublished"
> >
> >
> > I been thinking - and maybe others have, as well - that a poem does not
> > exist in any of the public spheres (online, print, etc.) until it
> 'breeds' a
> > review and/or critical response in the eye/ear in a similar or
> entirely
> > separate public channel (online,print, etc.) And something continues to
> grow
> > from there.
> >
> > I am thinking that most poetry, no matter how well or diligently
> written
> > has become absolutely frivolous. Frivolous because it has no visible, or
> > useful function in the culture(s). It's just dead on arrival! The
> mechanisms
> > for making it so appear entirely devoid of vitality.
> > At best Hermes is talking to Hermes.
> >
> > Until such public means (call and response) are constructed (again), no
> > matter our skills and muse fidelities, in terms of any longer being a big
> > public animal, we be sweeping salt. (i.e., there is much work to be done,
> > and why the weekly poetry snap here can be and is valuable).
> >
> > Whatever his graces, flaws, etc. I suspect Padel was able for a bit to
> > play her
> ruse on Braithwaite and make it persuasive was because not many in
> > this world had read his poetry. Where issues of sexual harassment are -
> and
> > rightly so - required literacy and training in multiple (academic,
> > corporate, etc.) environments. And consequently publicly persuasive and,
> for
> > a time, ruled this discussion
> >
> > On this this joyous note!
> >
> > Stephen V
> > http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
> >
>
>
>
> --
> David Bircumshaw
> "Nothing can be done in the face
> of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
>
--
David Bircumshaw
"Nothing can be done in the face
of ordinary unhappiness" - PP
Website and A Chide's Alphabet
http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
Leicester Poetry Society: http://www.poetryleicester.co.uk
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