[lit-ideas] Re: early recording of 'Howl' discovered
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2008 12:28:56 -0600
EY:
My complaint is that teachers (usually high school teachers awakened in
their youth by the Beats) taught the Beats as a strict canon, and thus
helped silence the full range of poetry, turned it into slam poetry, some
rap, and mostly silence, before the pop culture identity machine. Poets
now write only for other poets, and Britney-types speak (albeit in garbled
fashion) for the young.
Living in New York and living your life, you're a lot closer to any poetry
scene than I am. There's no such thing as a "poetry scene" in Memphis that
I'm aware of. Of course, I'm not the most hip of people, there could be all
kinds of slams and jams thank-you-mams going on, but I'm not a part of it.
I'm a one-man scene. I write rap-like ditties for Lit-Id simply because it
amuses me. (Julie asks if I am compiling them -- yes, in the trash can)
The first and last time I've had a conversation about poetry in Memphis was
two months ago. I was collecting for a bill at Zinnie's East (not to be
confused with Zinnie's -- 300 feet west, endearingly known as Old Zinnie's
or OZ which is my favorite pub), I was standing there in the manager's
claustrophobic office as he wrote out a check -- all the while bitching
about how much everything costs, of course -- when I noticed, pinned to the
wall over his desk, a poem by Merwin. I was astonished. I've known this
clown for 30 years at least. Never had the first inkling that he could
read. I said to him with (probably insulting) amazement in my voice:
"I didn't know you read Merwin."
"Oh, yeah, I love him."
"Me too, yeah."
"Yeah."
"Are you familiar with Mary Oliver?"
"Yeah, I've read some of her. She's great, too."
"She used to be, yeah. She was wonderful, she could make me cry almost. But
she's gone and found Jesus, did you know that?"
"Noooo. Reeeaally?"
"Yep. Her last book sucks. All that poignant beauty she found in nature
has been turned into Baptist hymns. "
"Awww, that's too bad."
"Yeah."
He handed me the check. I said thanks.
That's the Memphis Poetry Scene.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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