let me look thru the olde kilbey calendar here
hmm
poetry festival in brizzy coming up
hmmm
starts this thursday night with a party
guess i can manage that….
partying with the poets
but what is a poet
who is a poet
are you a poet if you say you are
or is it a title to be conferred?
its a funny word
poetrys funny stuff
not that popular these days
i guess song lyrics have taken poetrys place
fair enough i suppose
there almost the same thing aint they?
no not really
theyre not really the same thing at all
and being good at one
dont necessarily make you good at the other
the poet reconstitutes all available words into marvellous assemblages
poets do love to blab on about poets though
it justifies their own damaged esteem in this philistine world
lyricists got it easy
thats where the money is
and the glory
everyone loves a good song, right?
anyhow whatever babykins
im straddling the borderline at the festival
singing 2 lenny co-hen songs
a song-righting seminar
reading all of froot mashine in one go
attending parties etc
i’ll be networking with the poets
picking up new poetic vocab
and soaking up the general poetic bonhomie
but i dont like that much poetry per se
i love the greats of course
i can give them a little plug here
lautreamont
baudelaire
rimbaud
dylan thomas (fucking unbelievable)
bob calvert
jim morrison(yes!)
apollonaire
breton(for his manifestos and nadja)
antonin artaud crazy poet/visionary
shakespeare
rumi (very trendy)
jesus and buddha
their parables n sutras are spoken performance poems
homer of course an epic poet
wilfrid owens and some of the other 1st w w poets
im afraid everything comes up against my question
“is it marvellous or at least about the marvellous?”
which rules out much of the poetry out there in poetryland
of course everybody isnt after the marvellous
they never really were
the hoi polloi want the obvious and they do indeed get it
in spades
there is always a small group who do want the marvellous tho
and an even smaller group
who can actually occaisionally produce it
this is my thing
my field of expertise….
country poets
lesbian poets
funny poets
rap poets
yeah ok but no thanks
its gotta do this thing i cant define
its gotta transport me
its gotta be extra ordinary
its gotta be far out
or else why bother
if that beauty aint gonna convulse
anyway this is my narrow niche
i guess not everybody else
would by any means think im dabbling in the marvellous
the thing that most interests me
bores most others , im sure, im certain
that weird peculiar thing
that those master poets can do
they can throw you round all over the place
just with words arranged on a page
no music n voice to deliver it
no razzamatazzski
thats a real art
not many do it for me as i say
that shivery weird feeling you can get
when you read something real good
when the masters lay down their coolest word groove
there in black n white on a page
or on a screen
poetry hits your heart first
poetry you can do anything
poetry for everybody
poetry ah whos listening
can poetry ever come back?
i dunno
i dont know if its instantaneous enough for thesedays
its like croquet is to golf
is poetry to lyrics
very similar
but enormously different
one obscure n perceived as antiquated
the other a billion dollar biz
why cant poetry recapture its former position?
im sorry but i dont think poetry ever was that popular
really
i just cant see it
i think its pretty much always been pretty elitist-ish
the common man aint been quotin’ the poets of his day
i betcha
still
its worth while
poetry
i mean
the qld po fest is a blessing in an arid land
an opportunity to see if there is any marvellous stuff out there
put on a beret and smoke pot on the balcony
drink a champers and get your book signed by pierre the poet
yawn and fidget thru the boring bastards (like me….for some)
flog a copy of yer latest booklet
and talk about yer poems in hi falutin’ terms
im sure i’ll get real envious
when someone points out some boring olde boar
tediously reading out his ball numbing twaddle
and says
“he just got a grant for 200 grande to write that!”
oooh that gets me going…
govt funded poets
unless its me of course
i could be into it then
i’d churn out some poetry for em
if they paid me to do it
theyd get all my best epistles
funny how a little huge grant would lubricate my poetic-ness
how can ya pay em to write poetry….?
imagine if rimbaud was getting paid to write illuminations
some public servant overseeing the whole thing
this bits too rude
this bit doesnt make sense
this bit is un pc
this bit will upset the pope
this bit is too sketchy
still
if the minister for poetry
in queenzland or any where else
is looking for a good little poet
to bestow some whacking great grant on
then this is my submission
(is that the right word)
this is my application
just comment below
how much you have in mind
and i’ll start on new prose poem cycle
called
*my memories of the abyss and violet ray*
its brilliant da da or utter tripe, who can tell
not the guy dishing out the grants
thats for sure