[New-Poetry] What I witnessed

[TheOldMole]

Wonderful words by Francis.

David Graham wrote:
> I haven't read CD Wright's book & have no opinion on it as poetry, 
> journalism, or anything else.  I confess her work has left me cold for 
> some time, but I also haven't kept up with it.  
>
> The Poetry Of Witness, though, is a phrase that I find interesting, in 
> part because of its basic ambiguity, coupled with the fervor with 
> which it often is deployed, both by fans and by skeptics.  
>
> Back in the late 1970s I witnessed a wonderful moment at a reading 
> given by Robert Francis.  This would have been in Amherst, 
> Massachusetts, at the Jones Library.  After reading a number of his 
> charming, simple-seeming lyrics to the polite murmurs of the audience, 
> Francis then recited a fairly strident anti-war poem--to enthusiastic 
> applause.  
>
> The poet stood there, looking quizzical for a long moment (I am aware 
> how studied his performance may have been), waiting for the applause 
> to subside into smug silence.  Then he very delicately inquired, "Now, 
> was that applause for /me/, for the /poem/, or for the /sentiments in/ 
> the poem?  You know, applause can be so ambiguous."
>
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> ========================================
> David Graham
> grahamd at ripon.edu <mailto:grahamd at ripon.edu>
>
> Home Page:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz
>
> Poetry Library:
> http://web.mac.com/drjazz/iWeb/Site/DGPoLibrary.html
> ==========================================
>
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-- 
Tad Richards
http://www.opus40.org/tadrichards/
http://opusforty.blogspot.com/

The moral is this: in American verse,
The better you are, the pay is worse.
  --Corey Ford