USUAL MALE SUSPECTS
Publishers Weekly covers poetry on the web and specifically in the blogosphere with the usual male suspects. Surely there are women who have been around and have paved the way along with these guys? I have only been at this for half a year, so someone please tell me - where are the women OR why aren't they taken seriously in this arena?
* * *
And on a somewhat related note:
Thing With Feathers
J.B. Rowell
Would it help if you knew I had a tattoo
on my ass, crested H-D flying on black
wings? I'm unhappy more than not, more
than most. So there. It is difficult
to get out of bed to go to work, but easy
at 2 a.m., when I rise and slip out without
jostling my husband from sleep. Have I
impressed you yet? Will you read my poems
knowing the poet's soul perches atop barstool,
swivels, peers through cigarette smoke, flaps
to backroom to play poker with strangers?
* * *
And on a somewhat related note:
Thing With Feathers
J.B. Rowell
Would it help if you knew I had a tattoo
on my ass, crested H-D flying on black
wings? I'm unhappy more than not, more
than most. So there. It is difficult
to get out of bed to go to work, but easy
at 2 a.m., when I rise and slip out without
jostling my husband from sleep. Have I
impressed you yet? Will you read my poems
knowing the poet's soul perches atop barstool,
swivels, peers through cigarette smoke, flaps
to backroom to play poker with strangers?
posted by J.B. Rowell at 5:10 PM
6 Comments:
You've definitely impressed me. Many times! I love this poem, love the picture of the poet's soul perched. Nice attitude. :)
Me, attitude?
Thanks Irene and Anna - can yu tell I get frustrated by the poet gettting more attention than the poem - or at least the myth of the poet? Also, the backroom mentality of the poetry world - both "mainstream" and "underground". ugh
It definitely brings to mind the idea of "celebrity." It's like that in all art forms, though, isn't it? Even American Idol can't separate singer from song. I think the dangerous thing is when readers assume poems are about the poet -- one of the best things I've learned from Pat Schneider is to always assume poetry is fiction. Elements of truth and experience, sure.... but the poem is not the person and vice versa. Yet one cannot exist without the other.
I really love this one Julia, you surprise me! and pull things out that I never expect.
Thanks Michelle!
The tattoo's twin sister lives up north - a crazy college prank? No - a binding dedication to friendship and love of freedom that the Harley represents. "Drop trou..."
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