[New-Poetry] MacArthur Poets

[Bob Grumman]

I do think the MacArthur grants sometimes go to people doing good work, but two things particularly irk me about them.  The first is that when the foundation was new, I read an article about it that described how it was going to hunt for "mavericks" to support.  They may have tried to do this for a year or two, but they soon became just another mainstream granter.  But, yow, wouldn't it be great if just ONE grants-bestower actually hunted for unknowns doing important work instead of just keeping track of whom the other grants-bestowers and prize-givers were handing out money to?  And, occasionally, checking with spokesperons for victim groups for the names of mediocre culturateurs (as I call contributors to culture) to give money to, for the sake of social-correctness brownie points.

The other may not be the fault of the MacArthur people: the fact that recipients of their grants are called "geniuses."  I prefer that term to be reserved for much greater culturateurs (as I call contributors to culture) than all but a handful of their grants have gone to.

--Bob G.
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