[New-Poetry] "wet socks and gin before breakfast"

[jforjames at aol.com]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-dwyre-garton/take-me-to-the-intersecti_b_155276.html

Universities have been pondering the intersection of poetry and journalism. 


In late 2007, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City worked with the Chicago-based Poetry Foundation to host "Make It News: A Symposium on Poetry and Journalism." 


One part of the event examined the "scant coverage" poetry receives in the media. Will the press pay attention to Elizabeth Alexander, the poet for President-elect Barack Obama's Inauguration ?


The second part looked at the poet as journalist and the journalist as poet to examine what poets and journalists can learn from each other. The premise of the session: "Increasingly, poets are writing documentary poems that 'report' on an event. Many journalists also turn to poetic prose in order to convey a perspective that cannot otherwise be presented." Symposium planners anticipate both poetic trends will grow. 


Meanwhile, another scholar traced the history of poet-journalists.


W. Dale Nelson, a poet-journalist himself, published a book in 2007 ( Syracuse University Press ) with this subtitled: The Dilemma of the Poet in the Newsroom. He profiles several writers of both poetry and journalism and quotes the late American poet Archibald MacLeish : ". . . young poets are advised by their elders to avoid the practice of journalism as they would wet socks and gin before breakfast."


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