Are you serious about poetry?

[rowens]

I used to look at poetry websites for poetry magazines. The Guidelines for Submitting Poetry was usually a Cover Letter and reading poems in the magazine. I threw together a short paragraph for a Cover Letter, there's not too much to say about myself, it's like applying for a job washing dishes. But reading the poems in the magazine, I had no interest in doing that at all. Why would I? Nowadays, I look at the magazines, and I read one poem, and I know exactly what the poet looks like, down to which ear has an earring and where, if they have hair, they part their hair. Then I look at the picture, and I'm right. And, unless the poet is a female under 35 and attractive, I never think about them again.

There are too many ghosts haunting the mainspring to dally around with living people on a dead page. Now, if I was among those living poets, I'd associate with them. But anyone who tells me I have to sit and listen and form all comments in the form of a short concise question isn't worth my time. It's like online dating. There's somebody real behind the words, but if they aren't going to put out, they could as soon be dead to you.


The dead poets have vitality. They haunt doubly and thirdly more. Writing poetry is too easy. And people have help. And no one reads it but the help. And even they don't care too much.

But people, real people, read the dead poets. I was glad when John Ashbery died, because I'd been interested in breaking his code of obscurity for a while.


I know things about the dead.