Recent Comments
Re: “Poetry, politics, and pie”
I'm not against federal funding for the arts, but I'm suspicious of those who complain about the public' s response to their work while taking the public's money. The larger context is this: poetry is a public performance. When you get up to speak (or publish) you take your chances, including being "catcalled". Poets have no constitutional right to acceptance, acclaim, love, or even a fair hearing. Ms Mckibben thinks "it would be great if...we all just sat around a fire and masturbated and ate pie and read poems to each other>" Sounds like fun but it trivializes the notion of "safe." Read the life of Anna Ahkmatova and her contemporaries. They understood what "safe" really meant. William Butler Yeats (Anglo-Irish, 1865-1939) is one of those dead white males who seem to have the power to vex people from beyond the grave. As for "nice," if you can't say something nice about someone, sit next to me. (Nancy Mitford?)
Re: “Poetry, politics, and pie”
RE; Poetry and Pie;
Jacob Rakov is evidently troubled by the "lack of safe and supportive networks" for some poets. He found the U.S. and NYS governments safe and supportive enough when he accepted the taxpayers' dollars in the form of grants. Yeats said it best:
I think it better that in times like these
A poet should shut his mouth, for in truth,
We have no gift to set a statesman right.
He has had enough of meddling who can please
A young girl in the indolence of youth,
Or an old man upon a winter's night.
James Vercolen
Rochester
Re: “Poetry, politics, and pie”
Victoria
I have read over my posts carefully, and other than the fact that Yeats was a male I made no references at all to anyone's race, gender, or sexuality. As for misogyny, two out three literary names I dropped are women. jv