Of course, there are no guarantees. John Lennon once quipped that life is what happens to you while making other plans. There have been many great writers who never won the most coveted awards despite their best efforts. There are other winners who had no intention of being a writer, but life led in that direction. Many writers end up on their deathbeds with a hundred books of mediocre skill wearing their name on the cover while others write one great work of art and nothing else. How does “greatness” arrive?

How Literary Greatness Arrives

First, we must recognize that greatness is a perceived value, not an actual one. One man likes Charles Dickens and another man doesn’t. Can you measure “greatness” by aggregation? If 200,000 book readers agree that Great Expectations is a world class novel, is it? Or can we measure greatness by some objective, quantifiable data?

While measures of worth are to a large degree subjective, I do believe there are some objective measurements that we can look at to determine literary worth. Prizes and awards are simply a judgment in the minds of those who award the prizes. But the time value of greatness is at least as valuable as the time value of money. As any accountant knows, invest your money in a solid vehicle with above-average earnings during the course of your lifetime and you can retire with a comfortable nest egg. But is there a “greatness” nest egg resting somewhere?

Literary value comes as a subjective lens with a nonmovable handle and frame. Using a magnifying glass as metaphor, what you see through the glass is what you possess in your own soul. The hardware of the experience, however, is built into the instrument by generally accepted artistic principles (GAAP). Accountants, once again, are familiar with GAAP, which stands for something completely different for the numbers guys. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are the widely recognized unwritten rules that govern how business bookkeeping is done so that money is handled properly and commercial paper is used to turn more profit.

Literary greatness comes as a result of similar principles. The study of those who have succeeded, and failed. Hard work, grit and sweat, over one’s own work. A dash of patience. And the smile of the greatness gods. It all adds up to a fanciful synchronicity.

Why You Should Read Greatly If You Expect To Write Great Things

Authors and other literary artists would do themselves well to read. Reading what others have written, both the good and the bad, trains us to see our own weaknesses. If you cannot judge good literature from bad then it is likely that you will not produce good literature. Likely, not impossible. The first “great” literary artist had no mentors so there is a level of flexibility in the principles.

Still, reading is as much an avocation of writing and the writer who doesn’t read and read widely is likely as not to produce words fit for naught but the refrigerator door. And while reading the winners of coveted prizes doesn’t guarantee a blue ribbon in return, it never hurts.

I had prepared myself to write one of my philosophical posts on a topic related to writing today, but as I sat down to write, I’d forgotten the topic I was to write on. It was important earlier in the day when I thought of it, but as is the case sometimes, I got so busy with events that I didn’t have the time to stop and write down the idea. And I didn’t have a pen and notepad with me either. Dawg!

But while I did manage to let my mind slip, I also managed to get a little bit of writing done elsewhere. I kicked off the morning with this op-ed post at a new gig I thought I’d try. This afternoon I updated a few pages on the World Class Poetry site, and I also managed to add a new feature to the WCP Toolbar, namely, the addition of the PennSound PoemTalk, a daily podcast with Al Filreis. So I have had a fairly productive day.

Ordinarily, I’d have the grand kids today, but that didn’t happen so I took advantage of the solitude and got some work done. I also wrote a book review that will be published in the next couple of days. I love days like that.

My hope is that I’ll sleep well and remember tomorrow what it was I wanted to write about and be in a position to write it down or start the post. I don’t like being without my tools for very long.

How the Pulitzers are selected.

A new addition at The New York Quarterly.

Hating poetry is a virtue.

Why some poetry matters (and some doesn’t).

If both chairs are dirty, to sit between them is the best place for a poet.

Thanks Yevtushenko

Reginald Shepherd talks about how he started his accidental blog. He says some interesting things in the piece, but one thing I’d like to quote is this:

Google’s Blogger software requires one to set up an account in order to leave a comment, but instead of taking me to the comment page once I had done so, the program sent me to a page to set up my own blog.

This is precisely why I don’t like Blogger. It’s incredibly annoying to have to sign in to comment in the first place. Secondly, when I do sign in then I’d like to be taken to the place where I intended to go and not off somewhere else. Then again, if that hadn’t happened to Reginald Shepherd, we’d have one less literary blog right now.

Excellent reading: Online Vs. Print Publishing

Just for the record, my personal preference is online. I don’t like to wait for a year from a publisher who doesn’t like simultaneous submissions and won’t respond to queries or send acceptance notices. I know publishers are busy. So are writers.

That said, I like publishing in print as well. There’s just something about seeing that by line.

Thanks to Ron Silliman for providing the above links.

A Leaves of Grass-like composition.

“Howl,” the poem that made Allen Ginsberg and City Lights bookstore owner Lawrence Ferlinghetti famous, was recorded one month earlier than that event at Reed College.

Poet wins $100,000 award.

Oh, are you entering the contest?

From Poetry Foundation:

Five Ruth Lilly Poetry Fellowships in the amount of  $15,000 will be awarded to young poets through a national competition sponsored by the Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry. Established in 1989 by the Indianapolis philanthropist Ruth Lilly, the fellowships are intended to encourage the further study and writing of poetry. Applicants must be us citizens between the age of twenty-one and thirty-one as of  March 31, 2008.

Erotic religion: A Sermon On The Mound.

Interesting reading if you have some time on your hands.

In other poetry news: Doug Holder wrote a brilliant piece in The Somerville News and encourages poets to “build a community wherever you may reside.” That’s a good word, and I second the motion.

Baudelaire and Mallarme: Inventors of poetic style and voices. If you can get past the endless repetition, this prose piece shows why Baudelaire and Mallarme are important voices to study for modern poets.

And here’s my favorite: Poet Taylor Mali defends the teacher …

Jude Nutter of Edina, MN

Other finalists included:

• Christina Hutchins of Albany, CA
• Paisley Rekdal of Salt Lake City, UT
• Scott Coffel of Iowa City, IA

Edward Byrne of Valparaiso Poetry Review named John Ashbery “Poet of the Year.”

Robert Lee Brewer laments the lack of poetry on America’s book store shelves.

The Blogging Poet is kicking up his campaign for Poet Laureate of the Blogosphere nominations.

The Continental Review is sponsoring the first New Media Open Mic. Perfect!

Robert Peake laments the late arriving issue of North American Review. What on earth could it mean?

Nicholas Manning wonders if visual poetics and poetry videos should have their own Pushcart Prize. Personally, I think that’s a good question. What do you think?

Finally, a poet named Ezra opened a restaurant called Ezra’s Pound.

First, the names of the Best New Poets of 2007 have finally been published. Publishers are beginning to take nominations for 2008.

The Virginia Quarterly Review clues us in on the submission review process. Yesterday on VQR: Gore, Bush, and tete-a-tetes.

The 50 Books/50 Covers competition.

Sally Vickers praises Paul Muldoon’s The End of the Poem.

Ron Silliman on Jean Valentine. As usual, Silliman is exacting in his analysis. If I could choose a critic of my poetry, I’d want it to be Silliman.

Howard Junker on Absinthe.

Nancy Breen shares how (and how not to) submit greeting card verse.

John Hewitt updates us on the status of his novel.

The New York Times lists the 100 notable books of 2007, including Time and Materials by former poet laureate Robert Hass. Any idea how many more are books of poetry?

Jim Harrison talks about Charles Bukowski.

An interview with the woman who wonders What Is This Thing Called Love?

There are still poets against the war. Really?

W.S. Merwin, 80 and still going strong.

The Kenyon Review announces two winners of Pushcart Prizes. “Bicameral” by Linda Gregerson and “War Lullaby” by Meghan O’Rourke, which is simply fabulous. O’Rourke writes for Slate.

Yesterday, KR blew me away with a brilliant critical analysis on the state of the book review in American culture. Noting that many daily newspapers that once published book reviews now do not, or have cut the space allotted for such reviews, the market response has been to make us all reviewers. Amazon allows anyone and everyone to post reviews of books, but are those reviews reliable? You can vote on the reviews to let the reviewer, Amazon, and everyone else know whether certain reviews helped you or not. Personally, I miss the days when experts who can speak the language of form gave us an intelligible defense of their biases. They may not have been perfect – can you say “haughty culture?” – but at least they were informative and stimulating, unlike those Amazon reviews, which can often be scathing and lacking in depth or meaning. Yes, the way we give (and receive) reviews have changed, but that doesn’t mean we should surrender.

Speaking of reviews, if you have a book or a chapbook that you’d like reviewed for the eyes of thousands, let me know. Like Joan Didion, if I like it I’ll review it. If I don’t then I won’t mention it. How much more fair can I be?

Finally, Deborah Ager at 32 Poems shared links to the art work of Ron Mueck. These sculptures are absolutely stunning.

And now, your thoughts?

In 1982, there was a movie in the U.S. based on the Cremation of Sam McGee, one of my favorites. I was in high school then. I’d never heard of Robert Service. But I did know who he was by 1990 when another movie based on the same poem was made in Canada. I still didn’t know about the movie. You should check out the list, it’s an awesome list.

Elsewhere, I discovered a list of poets who have appeared in movies. The following names came up:

• James Merrill
• Amiri Baraka
• Viggo Mortensen
• Allen Ginsberg
• Robert Haas (yes, that Robert Haas)

A name that was mentioned, but only once, was Charles Bukowski, and that mention was with regard to Factotum, a movie based on a novel of his. Left out was his own biographical movie Barfly. We’ve already talked about actors who have written and published poetry, but what we have not talked about are my own secret acting aspirations. If there are any movie makers out there looking for a poet to feature in their next film, look me up, I’m available.