[New-Poetry] Fw: Numbers of Books

Tue Jul 4 13:52:06 EDT 2006

Perhaps I can write from the office machine.

The Numbers of Books thread, of course, referred to the thread on the 3,900
(was it) poetry books published a year according to Silliman.  

Also noted a major error. I meant to say it's lovely that Silliman does
this, even if some disagree with the value. I think it's valuable, in fact,
but I don't usually read. Personal preference.

Really trying to see if I can post from here.

-----Original Message-----
From: new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu
[mailto:new-poetry-bounces at wiz.cath.vt.edu] On Behalf Of Halvard Johnson
Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 12:06 PM
To: NewPoetry: Contemporary Poetry News &amp;Views
Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Fw: Numbers of Books

Gmail allows you the option of changing the address

you're mailing from. I, e.g., can opt for either my

Gmail address or my Earthlink address. Check out

your preferences or settings there.

Hal

On Jul 4, 2006, at 11:41 AM, Anny Ballardini wrote:

You are brilliant, I also sent from gmail.com and the mails never arrived, 

it could be, he will read this mail, 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: TheOldMole <mailto:tad at opus40.org>  

To: NewPoetry: <mailto:new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>  Contemporary Poetry News
&amp;Views 

Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 6:18 PM

Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Fw: Numbers of Books

Does Skip have two email addresses? That happened to me for awhile --
actually it's the same address, but when I emailed through Outlook Express
it registered one way, when I emailed through NetNation -- my website host
-- it registered another, and the posts didn't go through.

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Anny <mailto:anny.ballardini at tin.it>  Ballardini 

To: New <mailto:new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>  Poetry 

Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 12:01 PM

Subject: [New-Poetry] Fw: Numbers of Books

I am forwarding for Skip Fox, it seems his mails cannot reach New Poetry,
maybe James knows why?

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Skip Fox <mailto:fox.skip at gmail.com>  

To: Anny <mailto:anny.ballardini at tin.it>  Ballardini 

Sent: Tuesday, July 04, 2006 4:38 PM

Subject: Numbers of Books

Numbers of books are interesting, although the figures seem high to me if
underconsidered. How many vanity? How many micro-chaps? But most of all, if
you were in a bookstore with shelves moaning under this "load," how many
would be worth more than a brief perusal? One out of ten? You might quickly
eliminate all of certain presses' work (which you could always reconsider if
someone you respected, like Silliman perhaps, asked you to look again). But
there are still hundreds of books which might bloom under your attentions. A
bibliographer's nightmare. 

It seems more useful to consider number of poets and not think of statistics
(you can scare people with number of poets this way as well if we consider
merely the number of graduates from BFA, MFA and PhD programs with poetry
dissertations per year across simply the United States). I've been reading
for decades and have not run out of poets yet. I must have come across over
two dozen new exciting poets this year, some which have been around for a
bit and some who are just publishing their first book or two (like like
Kimberly Lyons and Jenny Boully) . Yet I doubt that there are more than a
thousand poets of real interest at this moment writing. Not even considering
poets who are just beginning, that's still a lot,  . . . too much for me in
this lifetime. Maybe someone like Silliman . . .? 

And that's my point. A bibliographer (which I was once) or an assiduous
scholar of contemporary poetry might be very frustrated confronting such
wealth. But a poet need not.

I remember exploring my home town library decades ago. I especially loved
the fact that when I went into a new area, or "deeper" into the shelves, new
worlds broke open at my feet. So many writers were worth all the time I
might give them. To say it simply, that is the way it is with poets for me
now. As experience and not theory, the number is wonderful. 

Silliman has employed himself as someone who takes a
bibliographical/scholarly/poetic overview of the poetic world as it is
happening. It's lovely that he does it no matter what one considers the
results. I just think it's important to remember that there are other ways
of look at this plethora. 

I believe we are living is one of the most exciting periods for poetry in
all its diversities and multiplicities(including non-textual). There is
always a slight regret when I come to an older poet for the first time or
when I look at all the magazines, but this is minor compared to my delight
of discovery and immersion in another new world.   

(The number of good poets certainly eliminates any need of reading careerist
or stupidly derivative poetry.)

  _____  

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