[New-Poetry] Simic Stepping Down

[TheOldMole]

The competitive instinct is hardly a stranger to the art world. Just ask 
Picasso, Yeats. Michelangelo, Parker...

Roger Day wrote:
> Art-forms don't, in general, need the competitions. It's the
> marketeers who dream up the competitions.
>
> On a mundane level, if you have a job then you need some way to pick
> someone to fill the job. At this "level" it becomes very political. In
> the UK, it usually means the smothering of the poet involved.
>
> I thought that PL in the US was a "real" job? In the UK, it's a nonce
> position, sucking up to royalty as if we don't suck up to them enough.
> Then again, I'm that rare bird an English Republican who believes that
> we would be better off without a monarchy. Transfer that symbolism to
> something more representative of England.
>
> Roger
>
> On Sat, May 3, 2008 at 9:03 PM, judy prince <jbalizsprince at cox.net> wrote:
>>
>> Howzis, jforjamesFinnegan (I guess--as am new on new-po)?
>>
>> Chuck the word "laureate" from the position, recognise that it's a job like
>> any other (i.e., with work to do and pay to get) and that it deserves
>> publicity for worker and craft.  Then go ahead and democratise the role:
>> hire a poet a week.
>>
>> Further, why do we approve the prostitution of poets and poetry by fawning
>> over the hierarch-imposing circus of competitions and awards?  Wot are those
>> events proving to us?  Wot are they demonstrating to poetry-appreciators and
>> would-be poets?  I've wondered why +art forms+ "need" the delusive boost of
>> competition.  Slightly reconfiguring the old patron networks, our
>> corporations and individuals (with all the charitable feeling of
>> missionaries <g>) promote art-ists through the twinned tactics of our
>> society:  war and capitalism.  I'd thought that art might, rather, be the
>> saddle-burr as well as the Necessary Oasis.
>>
>> Judy
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: jforjames at aol.com
>> To: new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu
>> Sent: Friday, May 02, 2008 4:05 PM
>> Subject: Re: [New-Poetry] Simic Stepping Down
>>
>> I'd like to see the post be given to a woman, preferably in 45-70 year old
>> range. Not too young, because
>> there are too many visible and interesting poets and time will be needed to
>> sort things out. Not too old
>> because I think it's become an emissary position, and even an activist one.
>> Jane Hirshfield, Jorie Graham, Alice Notley would be good short list  (all
>> for different reasons)
>>
>> Or to a Language Poet for something completely different: Hejinian,
>> Silliman, Bernstein...could be fun to watch.
>>
>> Finnegan
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jeff Newberry <jeff.newberry at gmail.com>
>> To: NewPoetry <new-poetry at wiz.cath.vt.edu>
>> Sent: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 8:31 pm
>> Subject: [New-Poetry] Simic Stepping Down
>>
>>
>> Simic stepping aside as U.S. poet laureate
>>
>> Published: April 29, 2008 at 2:39 PM
>> WASHINGTON, April 29 (UPI) -- A lecture on poetry translation will be the
>> final time Charles Simic speaks as U.S. poet laureate, the Library of
>> Congress said.
>>
>> "I've thoroughly enjoyed this past year," Simic said in a news release. "The
>> best part of being poet laureate of the United States is working with the
>> fine, dedicated and learned people at the Library (of Congress)."
>>
>> http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Entertainment/2008/04/29/simic_stepping_aside_as_us_poet_laureate/7748/
>>
>>
>>
>> Who's on deck?  Anyone know?
>>
>> Got this story via The Poetry Hut (http://www.poetryhut.com/wordpress/)
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Jeff Newberry
>>
>> --
>> "Why are you wearing that stupid *man* suit?"
>>
>> http://museoffireblog.blogspot.com
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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