Epiphany, December 6, is a good time for epiphanies. I've had one. Having spent a fortnight with my wife, brother, sister-in-law, and young godson, I know, more than ever, that bonds of family, and love, are the most important elements of life. Therefore, I have decided to temporarily close Eyewear. It will be getting shut-eye, as I develop the new small press, Eyewear Publishing, and - perhaps - return in a new form. In the meantime, look for my future comments at Facebook and elsewhere. I won't be posting for the foreseeable future. Editing, teaching, writing, researching, and spending time with my family - will take up more time. Thank you for reading this blog over the years. Some critics were right - it had become shallow at times. The passion and commitment it takes to edit and write for years, on poetry, and life, cannot be easily sustained. And blogs are now dinosaurs. There are other, faster, slimmer, more elegant ways to reach people. Eyewear remains open, as a publishing venture. Keep an eye out for what will be next. Peace be with you.
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....
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We are very sorry to read this and wish you every possible success with all your future projects.
Best wishes from Simon & Rusty
Roy