[New-Poetry] Simic Q&A

[Bob Grumman]

TheOldMole wrote:
> He's not wrong -- 740 is a lot of people, and I don't have a problem 
> with the fact that mainstream poetry reaches a stream of readers which 
> is more main. People are goiug to like what they're going to like, and 
> if Ron Silliman or Geof Huth or Aram Saroyan or Rae Armantrout were 
> named Poet Laureate tomorrow, they still wouldn't draw crowds like 
> Donald Hall or Mazine Kumin. And that's not a criticism of the quality 
> of either the School of Quietude or the School of Noisitude.
>
> But it's still a copout. The post of Poet Laureate, since it doesn't 
> involve writing poems for state occasions, has kinda come to mean 
> doing something to increase the recognition of poetry. And the NBA 
> draws more people than a poetry reading, but that doesn't mean David 
> Stern isn't still working on ways to increase the popularity of 
> basketball.
>
> Maybe the aim isn't to top 740, but it should be something. How about 
> encouraging poets like Hall and Kumin, instead of reading together, to 
> read with a School of Noisitude poet, and expose the existing poetry 
> audiences to a wider range of possibilities?
Hmm, what you been eatin', Mole?

Way back when, when I was trying to make it as a playwright with even 
less success than I have had as a poet, I used to think that if I ever 
got famous, I would not let any theatre produce my work that had not 
produced one work by a total unknown within the previous year.

--Bob G.