[lit-ideas] Re: Sunday Wotsit
- From: Donal McEvoy <donalmcevoyuk@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 5 Feb 2012 21:28:36 +0000 (GMT)
A telling tale. Tax funded poetry prizes (like the Staffordshire Poetry
Competition at which we did "Look". Fibonacci was a merchant and Heraclitus had
something to say but nothing as important as the poet - remember? "See". ) are
one way we can reach out to these unfortunates, and in some cases we may even
provide for them by way of sinecures within academic institutions. There they
may teach subject-matter, and work at producing more work, in a secure
environment - one where issues of quality can only rarely endanger public
safety and even then only on the very smallest of scales. The importance of
what they are doing must not be at all challenged - in the present century that
remains the central and continuing challenge - to ensure we are still
approaching them, and dealing with them, in the most humane of ways.
Donal
Ex-President: Bad Poets' Society
________________________________
From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, 5 February 2012, 18:46
Subject: [lit-ideas] Sunday Wotsit
the poet who was too nervous to read his own poetry had hair as big as houston
hair as big as al sharpton
hair that was really quite big
and beat
the poet who was too nervous to read his own poetry finally
got on with it
read
one
he described how miserable we humans are
how messed up we are
how wrong we are
the poet who was too nervous to read his own poetry stopped from time to time
in the middle of a line to tell us who first said what
so we'd not miss references
so we'd know that he knows lots about other writers
the poet who was too nervous to read his own poetry read a five page poem
really quite quickly
there being but a few words at the top of each page
then
rather than read more
he asked for questions
coming forward to where nine of us
could smell vodka
why someone asked do you lay things on the page the way you do
because
he said
after reflection about as long as a page of words
i want to
long
pause
interrupted by
are there any less hostile questions
we
thought
hard
someone raised a hand
how long did you work on that poem
pause
twenty months
oh
we thought
coincidence
that's about as long as we've been here
David Ritchie,
Portland,
Oregon------------------------------------------------------------------
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