[New-Poetry] Simic's laurelled tenure

[JforJames at aol.com]

In a message dated 8/31/2007 6:34:40 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
Rsgwynn1 at cs.com writes:

like Simic's poetry  and wish him well, but I think he's more of a "poets' 
poet" than Hall or  Kooser.  Chances of his being able to connect with a general 
readership  seem pretty slim.  Not, to paraphrase Seinfeld, that there's 
anything  right about that. 
 

It's hard to say how the various initiatives of the more activist laureates  
have faired. Have they brought in more audience? Made poetry more visible to 
the  public? Not a whole lot of corroborating evidence to look to. I applaud 
their  efforts nonetheless. In recent years we've had less visible laureates  
too: Gluck was adamant about doing nothing except her own writing and  said as 
much. Kunitz because of his advanced age wasn't going to be able to  muster 
much of a public showing. Hall was only in for one year...and I  don't know that 
he got any pet projects going in that time (Pinsky did the  Favorite Poem 
Project; Collins had his Poetry 101, Kooser got the American  Life in Poetry going 
with newspaper syndication) . Maybe that's  what gets one more than a single 
year's appointment: It's about what you do  with/in the post.
 
The fact that Simic is foreign born is a nice nod to what our country  should 
stand for. From what I can tell in the few times I've been around  him, Simic 
has a good sense of humor, and that will serve him  well...particularly in 
the various readings he'll do as result of the post.  I think he has a similar 
charisma to what Collins and Pinsky have. And despite  the quirkiness and wry 
nature of Simic's poetry, I think it's not beyond  the understanding of most 
readers; it's not so abstruse or obscure or  disjunctive that the chimerical 
'common reader' might be put off by. And it  might open a few eyes to an 
important aspect of poetry: Approaching the subject  from a unique or unexpected angle.
 
I agree with what Bob said, or I think he was saying, that: Saying you  will 
promote no particular kind of poetry or have no particular  perspective you 
want to advance, is advancing a particular point of view. 
 
Perhaps we can say that Simic's tenure will be one of 'laissezfaire  
eclecticism'.
 
Finnegan



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