sex-a-ge-na-ri-an

Poetry In a Bottle couldn't help but think of EILEEN after seeing this.

Michaela has a Puritan sighting! Excuse me while I hike my pants up a bit.

Oh, and the post title... I'm not between 60 and 70 and this really is only a lame attempt to see what kind of traffic it draws from google. hee he!

Whose Voice Is It Anyhow?

I read this article about Robert Pinsky's visit to University of California Irvine to discuss poetry. Pinsky of course a past U.S. Poet Laureate. The following struck me with interest:

"Poetry is supposed to be said by the literal or imagined voice of the reader. Poetry is a unique art whose medium is the audience body," Pinsky said. "It isn't the poet's voice, it is the voice of whoever reads the poem."

I like the analogy of the reader being the medium, and I am not adverse to the idea that once a piece of poetry goes public, it is subject to varied and broad interpretation. But what then happens to the concept of a writer "finding his or her voice?" This seems like contrasting views and yet I can visualize both, though with difficulty in the same breath.

Something to think about further tonight I suppose.

Writing Poetry May Be Hazardous to Your Health

Poets die younger than novelists, playwrights, and nonfiction writers. They're also poorer, get beat up more often, and are really tired of seeing people roll their eyes when told how they earn their meager living. And you wonder why they write such depressing stuff. This according to Barry Gottlieb at alternet.org

To Know

What chance have I, if any to see this
through? The wings of a bat to summarize,
tell you nothing that you can't find in books.
You knew that. Paper cuts on your fingers
speak of the pages you turned. DNA
on the pulp itself proves this to be so.

I wonder who you thought you would fool?
Is there any one among us who has
enough dexterity in their pea sized
brain to mark time and wait for the answers?
Hot flashes run tiny fingers all
the way up and down the spine to flutter

the nerves in some holistic way and chill
you to the bone. Shutter and shake till
you wake and realize what has just happened.
Knowledge can be a scary thing. But
don't let this frighten you for one minute.

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Hard To Keep a Really Great Poet Laureate Down

It must be hard to keep a really great Poet Laureate down these days. I say that because It seems that Billy Collins gets as much play in the press if not more than the reigning Laureate Louise Gluck.

I am rather fond of Collins' work myself. It perhaps brings more people to the table to indulge in poetry than a good many other contemporary poets. This, I am convinced is one reason that Collins is still so much in demand. I think educators for example find it easier to turn to Collins to supply the material that hooks many young readers to poetry.

While Collins can be quite simple. His work is none the less creative and entertaining. It is more his crazy style than the depth of his work that separates him from many lesser poets. The irony is that Collins often defends the concept of simply enjoying the verse and not trying to beat some sublime meaning from a poem.

His selection as Poet Laureate is still serving the art-form quite well.

Steel, concrete and poetry: the making of a Bay Area landmark