[New-Poetry] Big Bucks in Poetics

[David Bircumshaw]

I think the problem in this matter occurs where a fair number of people 
make careers out of having /status/ as poets, and thereby gaining 
grants, residencies, lectureships etc as their main source of income. So 
the focus becomes not writing well but acquiring a validated (by whom?) 
membership of a profession without accountable standards, formal 
qualifications, objective measurements of credentials, unlike doctors, 
teachers, lawyers etc, or demonstrable and agreed standards of 
proficiency, as in  serious theatre or music. It's like Freemasonry in 
being both public and reclusive but unlike Freemasonry the methods of 
acceptance into the fold are unknown, but certainly this focus on 
'making it' weakens the standards of writing.

Btw I think Hughes also relied on his income as a farmer to some extent.

-- 

David Bircumshaw
Website and A Chide's Alphabet http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/
The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html

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