June 16th - in London - will require all the chutzpah of an Orson Welles shuttling across town in a rented ambulance - to allow poets and poetry fans to enjoy what will be on offer that night. I count at least three major don't-miss events the same evening: The Poetry London summer issue launch, featuring readings from Emily Berry and others; The Michael Marks small press pamphlet awards at the British Library; and the Eric Gregory winners reading. Put that red light on your vehicle now, and rock on!
When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart? A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional. Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were. For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ? Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets. But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ? How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular. John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se. What do I mean by smart?
Comments
What is it with 16 June? :)