Rigoberto may be right when he says of The Best American Poetry series that “there’s something for everyone, usually, and like it or not the series is here to stay and to say something about the contemporary poetry scene.” There’s no denying po-biz exists, and this is one yardstick by which to measure the seductive racket.
But I worry, given the market pressures on young poets who invest in MFA’s, that little notches on one’s publishing belt are seen as be-all end-alls of poetry. Your resume and your poetry have no necessary relation to each other. None at all. Here are just three links to poets and poetry that cast a cool eye on the standard poetry career:
Interview with Conversation with Clayton Eshleman and John Olson:
… poetry “is about the extending of human consciousness, making conscious the unconscious, creating a symbolic consciousness that in its finest moments overcomes all the dualities in which the human world is cruelly and eternally, it seems, enmeshed.” This is a provocative statement. It suggests that poetry is something more than a cognitive titillation, more than intellectual candy, but a powerful agency, a transcendent force. D.H. Lawrence describes this phenomenon as “the soul and the mind and the body surging at once, nothing left out.” You would think people would hunger for poetry as they do food and sex, yet very few appear able to make this connection; it is as if there were some sort of stranglehold on people’s consciousness.
Dale Smith satirizing poetic careers
Jasper Bernes guest-edits Counterpath
There are many, many more poets attempting work that won’t get rewarded by wide publication and prizes. I don’t pretend to be entirely above it all—and I like successful poets like Paul Muldoon, August Kleinzahler, Mary Kinzie and of course the most successful of all, John Ashbery—just to name a few–but it’s vitally important that young poets have something to aspire to other than institutional recognition.
The best piece of advice on the ‘career” side of poetry I ever received was from John Hodgman (the guy who plays “PC” on those Apple commericals, and who I found through McSweeney’s.) The advice: it is fine to submit your work to a journal, but as soon as you mail forget you ever sent it.
Posted By: Simon DeDeo on October 11, 2007 at 4:34 pmHis series Ask A Former Professional Literary Agent is fantastic, and I’m really glad I found it when I did (just leaving college.) Best quotes:
Josh: When do I get to go to the cocktail party with clever, uninhibited women and chummy, eccentric men who admire and respect me?
JKH, FPLA: If by “chummy” you mean smelling of shark bait, then this can be arranged immediately. Otherwise, I’m sure I don’t know what you’re referring to, and please don’t ask me about this again.
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The words attributed to “Interview with Clayton Eshleman” are actually the words of the questioner in that interview — the great Seattle poet John Olson. I’m just clarifying the source here.
Posted By: Steven Fama on October 12, 2007 at 3:27 pmEshleman in the interview does make relevant remarks on the topic at hand, including the following: “The poetry scene today is flooded with young, talented, unoriginal writers who are trying to write significant poetry based on their given lives; they adhere to the given because most are part of the educational system, and thus they belong to their parents, and are without what I would call a viable self-initiation.”
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I corrected the wording…
Posted By: Ange on October 12, 2007 at 7:34 pmReport this comment
Thanks for linking to Dale’s poem. Wondering if you’ve read his new book, Black Stone (Effing Press)? Reading it made me think about your earlier post regarding how one might (should? must?) write about mothering in a world about which one feels highly suspect. Dale’s is a lovely book both to read and hold. Also nice to find a man writing so intimately and honestly about the bigger implications of birthing.
Posted By: Jenny Browne on October 21, 2007 at 8:02 amI end up reading this blog in big fits and starts but I’ve enjoyed a number of your posts and find myself returning to them. Thanks,.
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Thanks for your kind words. I haven’t seen Dale’s book, though I’d like to (at the moment it’s hard to pursue new books unless they come as review copies in the mail – hopefully this too shall pass). My earlier post suggested, I think, that if one is to write about mothering, the world must enter into it. I trust Dale does just that, as does Daniel Bouchard, whose Some Mountains Removed combines political reflection and personal (fatherhood) reflections.
Posted By: Ange on October 22, 2007 at 2:11 pmReport this comment