Don’t you know poets only do poetry when there’s no action?

Thanks for bringing this up: the fact that we “do things very differently over here”. Couldn’t be better stated. I’ve worked for the Rotterdam festival off and on over the last few years, when they’ve had Portuguese poets attending. They do an excellent job producing versions of invited poets’ work in Dutch and English, publishing small booklets in the three languages. Just a thought on what you’ve observed: there are two principal differences between US and Canadian Poets and those from other countries. One of them is that schools and movements (originally a European phenomenon) hardly exist in modern Europe and on into the middle East and beyond. In the very early 90s I came across the remnants of this kind of thing in East Germany, as though the poets there, the East Berliners and the writers from Leipzig and Jenna, had been frozen in time during the communist years. And yet, on the other hand, poetry is still very important in individual countries, and its praxis dovetails more with the life of the citizens of these countries, in terms of national identity, or rejection of such…across all political lines. Poets as well are more present in the national presses. The American corporate mode, which tends to contain rather than disseminate poetry has never really formed abroad. Poets are at once more individual (language and nationality drive this, of course) and more grounded in their local contexts, less apart from the societies they live in.

Just a start…

Martin

Brian

If you ride the NYC subway and pay attention to the ‘Poetry in Motion’ posters, you’ve read her poem.

If you read the New Yorker magazine, you surely have noticed Vera’s poems on its pages.

Only a handful of Russian writers and poets have been thus honored.”

Kenny

Wyn