I have remained silent at my blog about the terrible invasion of Ukraine, because I have been ill, and also didn't want to say anything useless, as if my voice or opinion on this matter had much sway. I am now going to try and compile a fundraising anthology of poems, because I have experience of doing such things, and it seems a small way to raise some money, and perhaps print a few good poems that may inspire others to also help a refugee, or give some money or other material benefit. This is obviously a very dark and troubling time in our history, and I am worried of escalation to atomic weapon use, or chemical and biological weapons. I light a candle for Ukraine in my window. I will write more about the anthology soon, after my operation. Hopefully the peace deal will come soon.
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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