Friday, January 30, 2009

Good for her ...

... Wendy Cope dismisses Poet Laureate post. (Hat tip, Maxine Clarke.)

I'm not sure that I agree that good poetry cannot be composed to order, but such poetry would not be introspective and lyrical. And that is what we want poetry to be these days, which is why there is so little narrative poetry and the little there is either gets overlooked or does not work because it is too lyrical and lacks narrative thrust.

3 comments:

  1. See, that's my problem to my everlasting discredit; I don't write happy-sappy little lyrics, I think and live large. That's why I wrote River, an epyllion as a warm-up to the Adagios Quartet, a contemporary epic.

    Now, someone I trust is reading it and reporting on their reading book by book and I keep thinking, Oh, Lard, please read the entire set of books before commenting on the prologue and first volume independent of the other three; it will all come together. It's narrative, it's an epic, the first successful epic written by a woman in the history of the tradition according to those in the know whom I trust (with impeccable credentials above reproach. Who, for example? Well, one is the official biographer of David Jones and his editor is Robin Robertson at Jonathan Cape).

    Sad, to me, that because I don't write Roses are bled, violets are cold, I don't get money to be fed and am usually older than old :).

    LOL. Purty good for someone off to sleep since I'm still bass ackwards on sked till the weather warms and I can find the moolah to fix the furnace which cuts out if it gets too cold. Ah . . . Life below the poverty line, ain't it sweet?

    Blows kisses to Melanie Rutledge @ the Canada Council, the most corrupt arts organisation in the known (and unknown) universe.

    Back sooner than you can say Licketty-Splat and where the heck is my friend, L.L.L.? (Hope feeling like a million Buicks). Miss y'all, though, too.

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  2. Well, go to hear from you, my dear. But what the hell kind of furnace is it that cuts out ... if it gets to cold?

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  3. One that no longer functions properly since Hydro One Networks installed its stupid SmartMeter 13 January (which was the record-breaking coldest day of the year, here) without informing me that the were just ripping out the old one (meaning I would lose power) and slamming in the new one (which doesn't actually "smarten" up till 2010); but, they're installing them all over Ontario NOW for then. Can you believe it? I can't. They were supposed to warn me they were doing it; but, because I was in the shower, they just went ahead and did it and it fried my thermostat, my hard drive (even through surge protection), and my telephone lines.

    Bell Canada felt sorry for me and didn't charge me for the SNAFUBAR; but, Hydro One's putting me through its insurance paces and I'm running an old CPU in safe mode; and, every time we have a power spike, jag, or out, it flips the breaker switch on the furnace; so, here I am all night because most of these occur at night. I need an electrician, it seems, now, to install an additional breaker to stop this; but, I can't even afford a new CPU till it does its "investigation" and even then, it's not guaranteed they'll take responsibility. I had to pay to have someone come and fix the thermostat that got fried and, no, they didn't understand why, either; they just happily took my VISA card and maxed out me for the visit because it was an emergency and there were many on the coldest night of the year. How maxed? The charge for one-way travel here before the guy came into my home that night? One-hundred-and-twenty dollars (plus that amount again for the return to the town where they live). So, I'd spent two-hundred-and-forty just to see a smiling furnace guy at my door in the late evening / early morning and then, he charged eighty an hour and expected me to make HIM a pot of coffee, my wonderful coffee, the only thing I really ace in the kitchen (besides eggplant parmigiana which I sure as hell was not going to make for him, either). I said, untruthfully, I don't drink coffee at night and gave him bottled water instead (since I don't have cola or so on hand, so to speak).

    (I actually do drink coffee at night; I drink it night and day, in fact; can't function without it; but, it's very good coffee and not fit for an over-charging predatory furnace man taking advantage of little old ladies in the beautiful downtown muddle of Elsewhere on the coldest night of the year.)

    Sigh. More than you needed to know but good for me to vent, thanks, pardoning punishment; and, damn, I wish I could do things on the computer outside of the basics. I'm risking bitz and bytes being over here AT ALL :).

    Miss you, news on Haiku next week, and have fun all. I clearly am, hehe . . .

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