The Mad Poets Blog

i lead a regular poetry workshop and a topic that keeps coming up is that of copyright/intellectual property/fair use… specifically around the use the epigraphs and or writing poems that come “after” another work, such as painting, song, or even a poem by another artist.

i found this thread from the wom-po listserv, but its pretty inconclusive — at least for me.  so i’m wondering about any of your experiences out there in the world.  do you need to get permissions for epigraphs taken from poems? how about song lyrics? is it based on the number of lines? could a poet/artist sue another poet for taking a few lines for an epigraph?

and where does allusion fit into this whole mix?  In Major Jackson’s recent book Hoops, there’s a long letter poem to Gwendolyn Brooks that is just riddled with allusion, in places he’s even weaving his own lines with the lines of other poets and writers, but in a very subtle, unannounced sort of way.  Does anyone out there have any ideas on how this works?

And do epigraphs turn off publishers?  Say, I’ve entered a poem or manuscript into a contest & its got a few well-chosen (or so I’d like to think) epigraphs… do the editors/publishers see trouble when they see epigraphs?

oh the list of questions goes on & on.

Bloggers like to play games. Bloggers also like attention. So do poets. Come to think of it, I guess all people like a little attention every once in a while. So, in that spirit, I’d like to introduce a new, weekly feature of the Mad Poets Blog — Shameless Self-Promotion Day.

Every Monday, I (or one of the other MPS bloggers) will start a Shameless Self-Promotion post, shamelessly plugging some event or other in which we’re participating, be it as featured reader, host, or even excited audience member. In response, you dear readers, are invited to add comments shamelessly plugging something that you’ve got going on. A reading. A book. A new website or blog. Whatever it is, we want to know. Did I mention that this is your opportunity to be totally shameless??

And if you don’t have anything, checking the thread will probably give you some good leads to help you plan your week in poetry.

Let the games begin.

I still need to catch up on Ashraf’s & Anna’s posts below… but I came across this article today, via Poetry Hut Blog, and it really made my blood boil. Although it doesn’t particularly relate to the previous discussion, its somewhat tangentially related considering both Ashraf & Anna talked about the nature of criticism and the quality of the writing in the articles they discussed — and those are my main bones of contention with the article in question.

In this “Poetry Browser,” the writer suggests that “Major presses still publish poetry… But much of the poetry is incredibly simple…” then goes on to “illustrate” this point with 3 examples, with the mention of the “major presses” is relegated to the article’s sidebar. From my vantage point, this saves the writer from actually having to point fingers at the publishing houses and, instead, allows him to take pot shots at the poets themselves.  (Continued)

Ashraf’s last entry brings up so many relevant points I fear it will be impossible to respond to them all at once. However, as my first contribution to this excellent endeavor I shall attempt to marshal a few thoughts.

Firstly I would like to make a positive observation. The thing I find refreshing about all of the articles cited is that they do, at least, offer genuine critical thinking. By this I mean that they dare to make comments about well-known poets, such as Strand and Olds, which have a negative slant. Comparing these with the puff reviews and politically couched essays which are perhaps the more common fare in many literary journals, I hope we are seeing a revival of old style non-careerist criticism.

I found the article about Strand very readable, but possibly a little narrow in scope. Strand may not be writing it or advocating it, but there is certainly much fine political poetry being written in America today by poets of all ethnicities and genders. I might recommend Poetry After 9/11: an Anthology of New York Poets for example. Or work by Tony Hoagland and Thomas Sayers Ellis for two perspectives on race. In the upcoming issue of my e-zine, the Barefoot Muse, I will be publishing a fine sonnet sequence by Anne Babson, which addresses various contemporary problems with American society including womens’ issues.

Turning to the Slate discussion, I did find it somewhat rambling. Dialogues have a tendency to become so, especially between writers! And perhaps the question it debates on the appropriateness of autobiography in poetry is of less significance than the question of whether enough poetry today is reaching real people. But I did feel both contributors made sensible statements about poetry in general. There is, after all, a place for academic discussion of esoteric art.

There is also a place for poetry in the New Yorker, as I have already suggested in this blog entry which I wrote not in response to the New Yorker piece Ashraf links to, but to the New York Times Book Review essay by David Orr which all but vilified Ms. Goodyear.

I need to wrap this up, alas, because I have commitments, but in conclusion I would like to emphasize that the marginalization of poetry is in our hands–mine, Ashraf’s, all of the Mad Poets, and anyone who reads this blog. Simply by having this discussion, we are bringing poetry more into the mainstream. Thanks for the impetus Ashraf. Let’s continue to do so!

Between feeling guilty that I’ll be leaving for 2 weeks just when this blog is getting started, and things being a bit “slow” at work, I have been doing more on-line reading about poetry than usual. I came across two articles about two different topics that I thought would be a good springboard for further discussion here, and a third that I read a few weeks ago.

The first is a not-so-recent one that I found on About.com, about one of my favorite poets, Mark Strand, and politics. The article, titled Stranded: Poet Mark Strand Preaches Political Indifference at UCI, is actually not so favorable of Strand, but raises some very valid points about the detachment and apathy prevalent in much of academic and “recognized” poetry. Still, I have to admit that I agree with Strand that “There’s no connection between rap and poetry. . . I can’t listen to it. It’s like being blasted up against a wall.”

The second article is a longer more recent one from Slate.com on Autobiography and Poetry, and the impulse to “confess”. It is actually in the form of a dialogue between Dan Chiasson and Meghan O’Rourke. The dialogue raises a lot of good questions, but like most of Slate’s article on poetry, gets a bit academic, dense, and tedious (at least for me). Yes, yes, I know Slate is mainstream reincarnated, but when it comes to poetry they’d like to think they are as haughty as the New Yorker.

Speaking of which, the third article comes from the New Yorker; it’s by Dana Goodyear and is titled The Moneyed Muse. It is, as the title suggests, about a topic that seems to be somehow taboo in poetry: money. It examines the effects of Ruth Lilly’s historic two hundred million dollars endowment to Poetry magazine on the publication, and poetry in general.

Aside from being interested in reading your thoughts on the topics that these articles discuss, I am also interested in what you think about the writing of the articles themselves: the language, the references, etc. Am I alone in feeling that the Slate article is symptomatic of writings on poetry in most literary journals these days: self-involved, self-referential, and somehow indulgent? And the bigger question: do you think this is partly behind the current marginalization of poetry in general?

It’s been a long time coming, but we’re happy to release the Mad Poets Society’s blog — an internet hangout for Mad Poets and friends.

Better than just a comments page or visitors book, here we can talk about our events — what’s coming up, what we’ve recently been to, and how it was. We can also chat about what we’re reading or who we’re listening. We can rant about the creative process and maybe even gossip about the literary world. You’ll also find news about the local and national poetry communities, info about magazines and contests, as well as tips and advice for writers.

But most of all, just like any gathering of Mad Poets, this space is open & supportive. And we’re glad to have you be a part of it!