World Class Poetry Blog

Great Poets And Contests
8 May 2008, the poet @ 11:02 pm

Happy birthday to Gary Snyder, who is, in my view, the best of the Beat poets. And you’ve got to watch this video. Thanks to Edward Byrne.

Finally, I’ve found something that Ron Silliman and I have in common:

A white male in a failing empire . . . .

Winners in Adirondack.

Speaking of contests, here’s one from Rattle.

Check out these five poets with staying power.

Poetry For The Birds
30 April 2008, the poet @ 9:02 pm

Here’s an interesting project, and a revolutionary way to market poetry. What do you think?

Here’s a bird poetry contest.

Speaking of birds, meet Amy Clampitt.

Poet Laureate Charles Simic’s swan song.

Gary Snyder wins $100,000 poetry prize.

More on birds:

How about loons?

This week I’ve published a review of Variations on a Natural Theme: A Loon Year by Hugh Hennedy. Here’s a poem from the selection (you can read another one in the review):

On the Surface Loon
In no apparent hurry
To dive out of it
He rides and bobs in sun

Standing now he bathes
Wings spread wide for balance
His white breast in air

On Aram Saroyan, Bill Knott,
And Ron Silliman
28 April 2008, the poet @ 10:10 pm

There’s something quite indiscernible about Bill Knott’s outrageous tirade against Ron Silliman’s selection for the William Carlos Williams award. But I agree with him. At least in part.

Third paragraph:

and I assume (I hope) that many of those same poets are now feeling insulted and outraged by the choice of this year’s winner,

Well, I didn’t enter the contest and I’m insulted, though not quite outraged. As judge, Silliman had every right to choose whomever he felt was the best poet or who wrote the best book of poems among those that were submitted. But I understand Knott’s outrage despite the awkwardness of his delivery.

Two paragraphs later:

As for you fools at the PSA, all I can say is, what the fuck did you expect when you appointed him to be the judge? You got just what you asked for, schmucks. The joke’s on you.

Well, good question. I mean, it’s Ron “Langpo” Silliman. Avant garde of avant garde. Or post avant. Or whatever the hell they are calling themselves these days.

I’ve said before that I’m not a big fan of the avant garde. I’ve never understood the point behind making something deliberately convoluted in order to prove its sublimity. To me, that’s like masturbating to prove your manhood. OK, I’ve got the picture. You can play with yourself. But the rest of us would rather not watch, please.

So, back to Silliman and his selection for the award. It turns out that he chose Aram “Complete Super-Duper-Hyper-Over-The-Edge-Beyond-The-Universe Minimalist” Saroyan. Except that even Saroyan has outgrown his annoying adolescent fascination with flatulence. Too bad Silliman hasn’t.

I’ve got no ill feelings toward Ron Silliman as it seems that Bill Knott has. Both men made it through the ’60s alive (though I don’t think anyone made it through undamaged). I was born in 1966 so I don’t remember those years and that may be for the best. But I have often felt like I’d have enjoyed being a part of that generation. I might have even enjoyed minimalism in its hey-day (I’d have definitely enjoyed Woodstock and watching Hendrix pick a guitar with his teeth), when folks of Knott’s and Silliman’s generation sat around stoned listening to Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin on vinyl while banging the bongos, snapping their fingers, and navel gazing to John Gage’s 4-minutes-and-some-odd-seconds of silence while looking at Saroyan’s goofy looking m on an otherwise blank page. But we are not in the 1960s any more, and this isn’t Kansas, Toto.

I have been amused, during certain times in my life, to have met people who came through the 1960s and hearing them reminisce of the beautiful times they had. I thought most of them were full of shit. The old white guy born of wealthy parents schmoozing the assholes of Dizzy Gillespie and Thelonius Monk while worshiping the Beat God Allen Ginsberg as if he had risen from some tomb and pushed the sepulcher off a cliff (I don’t know, maybe he did). There was always something fake about these old men trying to sell us young’uns on the glory days of Vietnam protests and Peace, Love, and The White Album. A new era deserves a new aesthetic, don’t you think?

Well, you would think, except that Ron Silliman’s eloquent defense of Saroyan actually makes it almost believable that he should have won:

Reading Complete Minimal Poems, we are struck by just how sturdy these poems have proven to be and just how brightly Saroyan’s sense of humor shines through these pages. These poems are works of great optimism, and are as radical and strong in 2008 as the day they were written.

Yeah, right. It’s not like he’s Homer or Shelley (Percy or Mary, take your pick). I mean, he isn’t even dead yet. What will the world think of him 200 years from now? Will they even know who he is? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

But my beef isn’t with Saroyan. I don’t care that he comes from the upper class. I don’t care that Silliman makes so much money in marketing that he turns down offers to teach and perhaps his income level clouds his thinking on poetics (or maybe he just has preferences with which I don’t agree). I don’t care one bit about Bill Knott’s chip, or the shoulder upon which it balances. What I do care about is moving with the times. As Knott said, paraphrased, there had to have been other poets who had more recently published poetry worthy of notice that could have been the winner of the award. And it should not go unmentioned that had anyone else been the sole judge of the William Carlos Williams Award, that likely would have happened.

Howard Junker sums up my view of Silliman-Saroyan with perfect clarity:

IMHO, it was misguided to give an award for work done 40 years ago by someone who hasn’t been in the poetry mix for decades.

On Silliman’s blog, Junker commented thus:

sure, these poem deserve to be in print, but they are ancient. and saroyan is no longer a practicing poet.

i wish you would have chosen a book by a poet who is still in action.

Yeah, you know, the fact that these poems were probably written and published long before many of the entrants to the contest were born might have been a clue that Saroyan’s book should have been placed aside along with Silliman’s own (he recused himself from winning when he noticed his own book was submitted for the contest). But who am I to judge? The PSA didn’t invite me to cast a vote.

This whole brouhaha is a testament to the prejudices and preferences of judges. If you submit to contests, it is always a good idea to find out who the judge is going to be before you enter and to submit poems, or books, or what-have-you, that appeal to that judge’s preferences. If I knew that Silliman was going to be the judge of a contest that I was thinking of entering, I wouldn’t send a submission because any judge that would chose Aram Saroyan, who hasn’t written a poem in ages, as the winner of a contest is not going to fall in love with my poetry. He may like it. He may praise it. He may even say sweet things about it as Silliman does the beautiful losers. But he wouldn’t pick me as the winner.

It all boils down to preferences. Judges tend to pick winners who are most like themselves. If for any reason because it’s human nature. It’s called affinity. You feel a certain sense of love for those whose aesthetic is most like your own. The problem is when those preferences become prejudices. And you can tell the difference between a prejudice and a preference. A preference is when you say beautiful things about other people’s children but you save your acts of love for your own. A prejudice is when you have nothing nice to say about the neighbor’s kids because they are different. I might not want Silliman to be a judge of a contest that I had entered, but I wouldn’t trust Knott as one. His prejudice comes in loud and clear.

I have written about these matters before with regard to my own philosophy of poetics. Preferences are nearly impossible to shed, but prejudices aren’t. One must make a conscious decision to shed them, but one can do it. I believe that there is something to learn from everyone. Even Aram Saroyan. To be sure, minimalism can teach us brevity. But too much brevity is excessive and this is the difficulty that I have with extreme minimalism. I mean, the next logical step is to serve up a blank page and call it a poem. I’m surprised this hasn’t been done yet. If it had, people like Silliman wouldn’t argue; they’d simply heap up an unhealthy level of praise and justify the blank page through some convoluted form of aesthetic rationalization. And it would likely win an NEA grant, much to the chagrin of the convalescing Jesse Helms.

Visual poetry can teach us things too. But what we should not learn is to imitate it too much. We don’t want a bunch of mini-Saroyans running around putting single letters on a page and calling it poetry. Or placing back-to-back r’s on a page and oogling it like a bouncing baby boy. There comes a time when intelligent people must say, “OK, that’s enough. We’ve heard the sound of your Mustang’s overly loud muffler long enough. Turn the key off, young man, and go to bed.” Then we can have a glass of wine and enjoy the next advancement for 15 minutes while someone else prepares for fame.

A note to the PSA: Next year, instead of just picking one person to be the judge of the William Carlos Williams Award, if you are so tempted, just go ahead and cut out the middleman and give the award to which ever entrant most resembles the preferences of your judge. Don’t waste our time with anticipation. It’s disrespectful.

The INSPIRIT Christian Poem Contest
16 April 2008, the poet @ 9:38 pm

Today, instead of posting a poem, I’d like to maintain the spirit of religious poetry by announcing a religious poem contest.

The INSPIRIT Poetry Prize is $500 and publication in the journal INSPIRIT for an unpublished poem of 100 lines or less that explores issues of Christianity, culture, faith, and/or nature. To enter, submit a SASE, a $10 reading fee made out to Rabbit Press, and two copies of up to three poems. Author identification should appear only on one copy. The deadline is April 30. The winner will be announced on May 31, 2008.

Submit contest entries to:

INSPIRIT
c/o Baughman Memorial United Methodist Church
228 Bridge St.
New Cumberland, Pa. 17070

A sample issue of the journal INSPIRIT is available for $5. For more information, contact baughmanchurch at aol dot com.

Rhyming Poets Contest And One Annoying Litmag
13 March 2008, the poet @ 10:18 pm

I’m sure you’ve noticed that I’ve fallen a little behind on my reading. I subscribe to over 100 RSS feeds overall and a good number of them are literary blogs. Most of those are poetry. But since I’ve been writing down my thoughts on poetics for the last couple of weeks I’ve fallen behind in my reading and keeping up with the latest developments. If you’ve sent me an e-mail and I haven’t responded then you know why.

I did find this little tidbit in my comments queue and I’ve been holding it for several days:

Rhyming Poets announces its 2nd Annual Rhyming Poetry Contest. Deadline: 15th July 2008. Mail 3 copies of 3 poems, maximum, with a declaration of originality. Fee $15/entry.

Prizes:

• $100+ 1st Prize
• $50+ 2nd Prize
• $25+ 3rd Prize

For more information, e-mail SBPoet AT Juno dot com.

And one more annoying thing before I go. This is why I browse the Internet with my sound on mute. It just bugs the shit out of me to land on a website and to immediately hear sound coming out of my computer speakers. I won’t be submitting anything to this journal or be reading its literary droppings. Besides, the page takes too long to load. It’s not cute; it’s annoying.

Get Paid For Your Poetry
21 February 2008, the poet @ 9:26 pm

I’m a bit disappointed. No one has entered my ekphrastic poem contest. Really, there’s not a lot of commitment. Just write a poem and publish it on your blog. Then link it back to me. Details here.

A former operations manager of Oxford American magazine is in jail - for embezzling.

Thanks to Poet Hound, I now know I can make $200 for one poem.

Read this interview with Hiram Larew, a poet who comes very well recommended in my part of the world.

Former Hanover, Pa. Poet Laureate Dana Larkin Sauers is the latest poet to be reviewed at World Class Poetry, for her book Between the Space of Grace and Gray.

On Yevtushenko, Shepherd, and Allen Ginsberg
13 February 2008, the poet @ 5:19 pm

Quote of the Day:

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?

Ekphrastic Poem Contest And Litmags
12 February 2008, the poet @ 10:28 pm

I don’t know what it is about this photo, from Zyzzyva Speaks, but I find it very interesting. Here we have an artist plastering her pencil drawing (that’s what it looks like in the photo) to a wall and photographing it.

Essentially, we have a work of art within a work of art - the shallow explanation.

In the broader view, since the “work of art within a work of art” appears on a litblog and if the litblog can itself be viewed as an art form (within the broader definition of art) then we have a work of art within a work of art within a work of art. Ah! But add to that the writing of an ekphrastic poem and you potentially have a work of art within a work of art within a work of art (a litblog) within a poem. Succinctly put:

A drawing within a photograph within a blog within a poemIs that sublime?I challenge you to write such a poem and publish it on your blog. At the bottom of your blog post, link back to this blog post using the phrase World Class Poetry Blog Ekphrastic Poem Contest Entry. Be sure to stop by and leave me a comment on this post telling me the exact URL, or permalink, where your ekphrastic poem is published.

The deadline to enter is the last day of February. The winner of the contest will receive a free copy of my chapbook “I Like War,” which consists of ten poems written while I was stationed in Iraq in 2005.

NOTE: Your poem can be about the drawing, the photograph of the drawing, or the idea of a drawing within a photo. If you’re really self-conscious you can write an inward looking poem about your ekphrastic poem purporting to be about a drawing within a photograph. You get the idea. Be creative. Be crafty. Write a poem. Link to me. Tell me where to find your poem. Have fun.

Learn What You Need To Know About Journals And LitMags
Do you read litmags? If you want to be published, you should. NewPages Blog has information about a variety of litmags that you can check out and I encourage you to stop by and find one or two that you like or want to taste.

32 Poems has started accepting online submissions. I think this is great. More journals and litmags should take online submissions. I think more will. I think you’ll like 32 Poems. Subscribe.

AGNI is expanding its online offerings, which is cool because now they can catch up to Rattle.

Poetry Potpourri, Volume 3
8 February 2008, the poet @ 11:37 pm

This short story contest had no winner and some entrants are plain pissed off about it. Oh, well. Better 10,000 pissed of losers than one mediocre writer thinking he deserves some kind of credit.

Stumbling Verse, a form for a new millennium.

Bill Moyers asks, “What books should the next president read?” I don’t really care as long as he reads more than the summaries of news stories presented to him by his press corps and the Sunday comics. I’d like him to have more than a fifth grade reading apprehension level.

VQR solves for the X factor. But if your submission is one of those that is automatically deleted then you’d be on the reverse side of this equation. That 4.6% wouldn’t mean a thing to you except that your submission would be included in it. Honestly, I’d have thought that figure would be higher.

When will the children’s fable be considered serious literature?

Street poetry is a “major art” and therapy for the homeless.

Is it erotic to have two vaginas?

The Princess of Black Poetry celebrates black history.

Asking what the poem wants. I just always assume my poems want to make love. You know want it, Baby! You know you want it!

Write a poem today. Then revise it tomorrow.

Audio Contest, AWP, And The State Of Poetry Today
6 February 2008, the poet @ 11:49 pm

The Missouri Review hosted an audio contest. The winners of the poetry competition were announced:

First place in subcategory and Editors’ Choice Award, $100: Todd Boss, “To Wind a Mechanical Toy”
First runner up: Todd Boss, “Yellow Rocket”
Second runner-up: Runner up: Susan B.A. Sommers-Willett, “The Golden Lesson”
Third runner-up: Eric Torgenson, “Taking Tickets”
Fourth runner-up: Josh McDonald, “Women in Strange Trousers”

Chekhov’s Mistress Lives It Up Big
Bud Parr is salivating. It’s AWP week and Andrew Sullivan threw him some link love, which led to a pack of ants strolling through his picnic.

I’ve got to say, I’m not all that big on conferences and group activities. It sounds as though Bud is much the same way:

I’ve been to a lot of conventions and most of them are sickening to one degree or another, but there was a certain harmony of purpose at AWP and despite one table of dour interns (from a publisher we know) everyone was pretty enthusiastic about what they were doing.

So from the sound of things, AWP must be a blast. Sorry I’m missing it.

Interesting Quote Of The Day
This is an interesting quote:

“A new, non-corporate internationalism is emerging in literature, an independent web of associations and alliances at whose centre, like a brooding spider, lurks 3:AM. This collection is essential reading.” - Tom McCarthy, author of Remainder

Ron Silliman’s Brilliance
Ron Silliman and I are on the same page. He received a questionnaire from the Poetry Foundation and publishes his answers on his blog. Tidbits:

There are presently at least 10,000 publishing English-language poets. There may in fact be twice that number – it really depends on what percentage of publishing poets you think have active weblogs dedicated to the subject (if it’s ten percent, then the number is 10,000, but if you think the percentage is lower – as I believe – then the actual census of publishing poets would be greater).

And the common wisdom is that we need to promote poetry in order to get more people to read it. I don’t think that’s the problem. I think we have a lot of people who read poetry, and sadly, too many of them think they can write it.

The consequence is that there are more active poets now than ever, but that the total addressable market for any given book of poems is likely to be much smaller.

This isn’t exactly very encouraging. I think the landscape is such that if you don’t have an MFA your chances of finding a publisher for your poetry is severely diminished. Add to that the increasing nichification of poetry and the number of potential publishers that might consider publishing your poetry is even less. Throw in the economics of publishing and the situation is even bleaker.

To speak in this social context of “the decline of poetry” strikes me as completely missing the mark. It is possible that fewer people are reading certain types of poetry and/or certain types of poets, but there has never been so much poetry being written in the United States. I suspect, but can’t prove, that there has never been so much poetry being read in the U.S. as well, only that it is in a far more decentralized and fragmented fashion than before. We do not have a single national poetry audience, but rather hundreds if not thousands of smaller audiences, some of which overlap with one another, but many of which do not.

Is it any wonder then that our poet laureate doesn’t feel any obligation to promote poetry? Why should he? We’re already reading it.

And the final gem:

I am not at all certain that any MFA program should admit a student who cannot name a minimum of 100 books of contemporary poetry – published in the past 25 years – and say a little about each. And I am not sure that I would graduate any student who did not then seriously read 200 more such books over the next period of time – some schools require as few as 25 – and again could say a little about each. This would lead to far fewer students coming out of these programs with only barebones knowledge of what is being done today, far fewer students having to reinvent the wheel, and a much richer sense of what is actually possible in contemporary poetry, from slams to the new formalism, from flarf to narrative, from the prose poem to visual poetics.

And this is the part that is embarrassing for me. I’m not sure that I could meet the 100 book requirement. And I’ve been writing poetry for 20 years. But to meet this requirement, keeping in mind that I’m not enrolled in any MFA program nor do I currently have plans to enroll in one, but if I did then that would pose a slight problem for me. Off the top of my head I could probably come up with 20 titles and be able to discuss them at length, but 100? I’ve forgotten that many.

It likely wouldn’t take me but a couple of months of study time to become familiar with that many books if I needed to, but that is precisely Silliman’s point, namely, that MFA students, and graduates in particular, should have a better sense of what is going on in the field of poetry in general and in their own niche specifically than today’s graduates do. Furthermore, many of them couldn’t tell you the difference between a synecdoche and a trope either and this is what I mean when I speak of Millennialism - poets should study the craft, contemporary poets as well as the classics, and form some kind of style around the elements of form and content while trying to keep continuity with those who have come before.