Poetry...
04/07/2002 07:29 p.m.
This was written by Mike Paulus, a really cool local gentleman. It's fucking cool.

As it's National Poetry Month, I thought I'd use the email to spout off on today's poetry scene in general. I've had quite a few conversations in the past few months concerning the current state of poetry in America--which I, of course, know everything about--and I've come to a few conclusions.

People do a lot of complaining about the publishing industry and their basic rape of the reading public. The industry publishes titanic piles of best sellers and nothing else. They publish authors approved by focus groups full of consumers with little concern for artistic anything, stuffing the shelves of castle-tall books and music stores with what will make them money. Poetry and drama and comic books are tossed onto whatever shelf space is left in the back. Writers and readers complain about this at every level of the economic, social, and hipster spectrums. And, quite obviously, they're right. They sit around in bars and coffee shops, on couches and lawn chairs trying to figure out what might help. They ask "What collection of poetry could break through this horrible barrier? What possible combination of writers can we package together so people will buy it? What color could we possibly paint this animal as to be taken in by the herd? Did you see the last New Yorker? There's a fabulous cartoon on page 20. Honestly, how can we get people to buy poetry?" Well people, I have the answer to these and many other questions. It's all very simple if you remember one little thing these people have forgotten:

People don't buy things they don't want. And most people do not want to read poetry.

The shear elegance in these words astounds even myself. So am I saying we should give up and let the rest of tiny presses and micropublishers finally die off? Should we tell them "Nice try. What you did was terrific but times, they have-a-changed." Of course not, you silly goose.

If you really give a shit about rebuilding this country's poetic architecture, quit talking about the publishing industry. Like America's War on Drugs, it's obscene, bloated, corrupt, stupid, completely unwilling to admit its mistakes, and unable to see past it's own paranoia. It can't be reasoned with. Besides, contrary to popular opinion, the correct marketing equation cannot get people to buy a book of words they don't care about, written in a way they don't like. So even if Random House switched %25 of their business to producing huge piles of poetry, so what? Who's gonna buy it? Hell, all of those crappy best sellers are still better than TV, so why stop them? No, no, no. If you want to see more poetry in America forget the big publishers (but support the little guys), forget the poets (there's a never-ending supply), and focus on the goddamn people. Do it not like you're a writer, not like you're an activist, but like you're someone having a conversation with someone else in a bar and you're talking about something mildly to highly interesting.

Why is poetry so important in the first place? Ask yourself that question, find an answer, and that's what the people need to know. Why is it better than Tom Clancy? Why is it better than Oprah? Why isn't anything better than Ezra? Go figure it out and go talk to people. Saying you like poetry is like saying you like music. So what? What KIND of music do you like? Poetry has the same amount of variation so you need to be more specific--what value does it have? And don't get too poetic when you talk to people about it. People need to realize that poetry isn't this cryptic corner of the book store. It's not what they think it is. Just like jazz really isn't a musician's music, poetry is not written for poets alone.

Oh, and go to the library because they have lots of poetry there.

I am currently Sweet