[New-Poetry] Big Bucks in Poetics

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Big Bucks in Poetics

I think it was Auden (correct me if I’m wrong) who said the poet must also
be a tradesman.  For a long time I puzzled over this, being not quite
certain (or ready to accept) what he meant, until I realized he was
talking about promoting yourself, promoting your poetry and doing the
business of getting published and readings and establishing a peer group,
all the “literary business.”  I resisted this conclusion because I felt
the tradesman stuff was “beneath me” and not in the spirit of “being a
poet,” or rather it did not fit my romantic notion of what and how and why
a poet does.  I always felt (this was indeed my experience) that writing
poetry was easier than getting it published; that, and all the “tradesman”
stuff, requires a different set of skills and talents, which I did not
feel inclined to cultivate.  To be a poet in obscuirity (albeit with my
own set of relations to other poets and writers and teachers and so) did
not seem unnatural, and maybe because I always believed (in my heart) that
if the poetry was good, that good poetry will out in the end because that
was the way with poetry, that some poetry was downright inevitable, and
would eventually defeat its obscurity.  I believed that poetry was “magic”
in that way.  Today I know a good many “poets” who are better at being
“tradesmen” than at creating poetry.  It’s like having to ingratiate
yourself to the department chair, even when or especially when you know
exactly how he got there.  But then again maybe that’s unfair, afterall
it’s your job and ya gotta do wutcha gotta do.  How about this one:  It’s
like ingratiating yourself to people with whom you feel no affinity
whatsoever, despite that you both call yourselves “poets.”

I recommend this essay, entitled “Professionalism Revisited”


http://albany.edu/offcourse/summer07/r_nirenberg_professionalism_revisited.html

it’s by Mr. Ricardo Nirenberg and is on his literary journal, Offcourse. 
It’s maybe the best essay I’ve read this year.  If the url doesn’t work
please then paste it in, I promise it is worth the effort. . . .


“I'm not sure where in the Constitution it covers the position of Poet
Laureate, but as I've noted before when this subject crops up, the
position is not funded with tax dollars.  It's a private endowment,
administered by the Librarian of Congress.

I would guess that virtually no poet lives on royalties.  Even Merwin has
over the years brought in a lot of his cash via readings, translations,
and such.  I'd be surprised if he actually lives on book sales per se, but
I could be wrong.

If you count readings, conference appearances, contest judging, editorial
work, and other ancillary activities, not simply book sales, I would
further wager that quite a few American poets could live quite well off
their art without tenured teaching gigs.  Donald Hall has been doing it
for decades, to cite one such instance, and so has Robert Bly.”

David Graham
grahamd at ripon.edu


“David,
You're right, I believe. There are few poets surviving solely?in
the?marketplace. Those who have, generally speaking, are successful in
another realm, like the novel or pop-music. Think Jim Harrison or Leonard
Cohen.

If we totaled the college/university reading?fees and private foundation
grants/awards given to Merwin, I think we'd see a poet beholden to the
academy and the?charitable sector. Also, where would Merwin be without the
teaching poets teaching his work?

I'm a Merwin fan from way back, I might mention.”

Finnegan

“Ted Hughes lived off his writing-- note though that he didn't just
publish poetry but also children's books, BBC scripts, commissions of one
sort or another.  Plath also lived off of her writing and worked very hard
to make her name writing for "women's magazines".  Ladies Home Journal,
Reader's Digest, etc.  It paid.  The Bell Jar was written with the goal of
breaking into the bestselling "pot-boiler" novel genre.

So yeah, you can make money off of your writing.  I guess I do that
technically speaking-- I'm a professional tech writer.  My latest client
just gave me an iPod as a thank you present.  As a poet the best I can
hope for is maybe a free beer and all the cheese I can eat. :-)

Merwin doesn;t work directly in Academia, but he certainly reads and
speaks in academically funded situations, and I am sure judges the Yale
series has some small change attached to it.  He also translates and has
done very well there.  His place in Hawaii is supposed to be gorgeous.”

Suzanne

posted by gregory vincent st. thomasino

http://thepostmodernromantic.blogspot.com


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