Wednesday, May 02, 2007
Amy King
is the 2007
Poet Laureate
of the Blogosphere
§
The Washington Post’s
big
”Celebrating Poetry”
Book World feature,
with everything from
John Donne,
Mandelstam & Herbert
to
David Shapiro
&
Ken Rumble
§
§
Charting British poetry
since WW2
§
§
A poetry festival
in Lorca’s home town
§
§
A new record
for the world’s smallest book
§
Six word short stories
(Hemingway was right!)
§
§
The Pulitzer for music
continues to bear fruit
§
Talking with
Natasha Trethewey
§
Of Isabella Whitney,
the first woman
to publish
a book of poems
in English
(1573)
§
§
Newspapers
“are cutting their own throats”
The newspaper
”suicide pact”
§
“One Million Poet,”
the game show
§
§
§
Ashraf Osman
has tagged me
as a
Thinking Blogger
Now I must tag 5 others
who likewise
inspire me
with what they write
& how they focus
their blogwork:
Eileen Tabios,
who is creating a new literary audience
in part through her blog,
& for translating kari edwards
into Ilokano
Zoe Strauss
for never blinking
at what she sees
Mark Scroggins,
a scrupulous literary scholar
who doesn’t take short cuts
even in his blog
Stephen Burt
& Jessica Bennett,
for their integration
of literature & life
(tho basketball is neither)
&
Geof Huth
for using the form
to create
a critical language
for vispo
§
“’to be a writer of contemporary verse,
there’s really no place better
than Minnesota,’ says Stephen Burt.”
You need to get to the sidebar
to find out about
the job
at Harvard
§
§
§
Once
they took E.A. Robinson
seriously
§
Poetry and bread
in
§
Another Irish poet
beloved
by the School of Quietude
§
§
§
Palestinian poet
Taha Muhammad Ali
§
§
Audios from the past
alas
§
§
Ooga-Booga
finally
wins a prize
§
At 31,
Meghan O’Rourke
has graduated from Yale,
worked for The New Yorker,
become culture editor of Slate
& poetry editor of
The Paris Review
O’Rourke’s first book
(from FSG)
is reviewed in the
New York Times
§
Donald Hall
on
All Things Considered
§
§
Cruising for culture
with Lincoln Kirstein
§
The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema
(Slavoj Zizek of course)
Check out
the reading list
§
About to become
the top-grossing
visual artist
of all time
§
§
All the news that’s fit to spin:
”BAGHDAD, May 2 – The Bush administration
is planning to withdraw
most United States combat forces
from Iraq over the next several months
and wants to shrink the American military presence
to less than two divisions by the fall,
senior allied officials said today.”
New York Times article
by Michael R. Gordon & Eric Schmitt
May 2, 2003
§
Labels: links
comments:
<< Home
I'll keep it to your first entry and your last this time. One has to pick and choose you know.
Congratulations to Amy King on her laureateshipness. I think she has a lot to offer after having read several of her poems that can be found on line. My one problem with her work however is that the poems do not stand out one from another...they just have this tendency to all sound the same:
Angst.
Ah the glorious angst of it all and each of us has some.
This (from her poem The Living Still Have Their Names):
For the moment, blood is only part of what
I’m bleeding: I’ve found ways
to get my rabies below
the antibacterial radar.
and (continued) this:
As a well-trained American, my focus
shifts toward the hunt for a better bargain
and an evermore dire diagnosis.
It’s never been easy knowing an emergency
often happens in my absence....
....relates more of a diagnosis than anything else. And not a good one I might add.
So what is the solution to all of this hard talk against the American culture? And will all the poems written for the next decade or two be like this? Ah, we hate ourselves and why didn't we look harder!
Well...from her other poems I gathered that Ms. King is a "sympathizer" but I must say, for how long? Until she realizes that the core problems right now (Islam versus "the rest") are not temporary and the final call will not be as easy to digest as all of this compassionate wind gathering of the ancients that American "liberals" are so good at and, she is one apparently. Liberalism seems to be the poet gathering point and if you aren't with them then you seem to be this obnoxious thing called the SoQ.
Islam isn't an opinion piece you know and sure....her poems are not directly addressing "us" per se but what right now is not directly addressing "us" and "them" (Israel)?
Hmm.
So that's it. I think she has great potential and deserves this award and no doubt, she'll get other ones if she keeps digging for the truths behind her myriad of wondrous spiritual suggestions.
Now. For your last entry about withdrawal of US Forces...um...do you really think they are going to let Iran solve this one for them?
I don't but hey, I'll sure be glad if they do.
Congratulations to Amy King on her laureateshipness. I think she has a lot to offer after having read several of her poems that can be found on line. My one problem with her work however is that the poems do not stand out one from another...they just have this tendency to all sound the same:
Angst.
Ah the glorious angst of it all and each of us has some.
This (from her poem The Living Still Have Their Names):
For the moment, blood is only part of what
I’m bleeding: I’ve found ways
to get my rabies below
the antibacterial radar.
and (continued) this:
As a well-trained American, my focus
shifts toward the hunt for a better bargain
and an evermore dire diagnosis.
It’s never been easy knowing an emergency
often happens in my absence....
....relates more of a diagnosis than anything else. And not a good one I might add.
So what is the solution to all of this hard talk against the American culture? And will all the poems written for the next decade or two be like this? Ah, we hate ourselves and why didn't we look harder!
Well...from her other poems I gathered that Ms. King is a "sympathizer" but I must say, for how long? Until she realizes that the core problems right now (Islam versus "the rest") are not temporary and the final call will not be as easy to digest as all of this compassionate wind gathering of the ancients that American "liberals" are so good at and, she is one apparently. Liberalism seems to be the poet gathering point and if you aren't with them then you seem to be this obnoxious thing called the SoQ.
Islam isn't an opinion piece you know and sure....her poems are not directly addressing "us" per se but what right now is not directly addressing "us" and "them" (Israel)?
Hmm.
So that's it. I think she has great potential and deserves this award and no doubt, she'll get other ones if she keeps digging for the truths behind her myriad of wondrous spiritual suggestions.
Now. For your last entry about withdrawal of US Forces...um...do you really think they are going to let Iran solve this one for them?
I don't but hey, I'll sure be glad if they do.
Ken Rumble's book is terrific!
"The view that the river will carry every-
thing before time's end
that there's no river at all even
that river is not a noun, is a verb like smoke/land/place
The view that metaphor can make anything anything
that metaphor can
the metaphor can"
And I like that the movie THE EXORCIST was filmed in one of the houses on the cover! That movie was a reverse dandelion for my tender youth.
The Shapiro SELECTED is killing me it's so beautiful! Let me just say that he was never one of those poets I knew much about, or paid attention to because nothing grabbed me. But then Erica Kaufman put a Shapiro poem up on her blog every single day, for, oh, a couple weeks maybe. And those poems were so marvelous I tuned in every day to see the next one! And now this selected book of his is out, and in a way I'm really happy that I didn't know how good he was because I get to discover him now!
We're so lucky being alive at this time where poetry has the abundance it does!
Conrad
POETRY AUCTION for Frank Sherlock EMERGENCY FUND!
"The view that the river will carry every-
thing before time's end
that there's no river at all even
that river is not a noun, is a verb like smoke/land/place
The view that metaphor can make anything anything
that metaphor can
the metaphor can"
And I like that the movie THE EXORCIST was filmed in one of the houses on the cover! That movie was a reverse dandelion for my tender youth.
The Shapiro SELECTED is killing me it's so beautiful! Let me just say that he was never one of those poets I knew much about, or paid attention to because nothing grabbed me. But then Erica Kaufman put a Shapiro poem up on her blog every single day, for, oh, a couple weeks maybe. And those poems were so marvelous I tuned in every day to see the next one! And now this selected book of his is out, and in a way I'm really happy that I didn't know how good he was because I get to discover him now!
We're so lucky being alive at this time where poetry has the abundance it does!
Conrad
POETRY AUCTION for Frank Sherlock EMERGENCY FUND!
OH, and that article in the BOSTON GLOBE linked here makes me particularly happy! Because I have been getting really bored with the yakkety yakking from poets (especially elders) who like to say that when emotion is involved in (or when) writing a poem that it's probably crap! How on fucking earth can you NOT feel is my question!? If I'm not an exposed nerve all day long I think (or am I feeling? or both? ah!) that maybe I'm dead inside. But I'm never not an exposed nerve all day so I never feel (think?) that, but maybe it's just I wonder what I'd believe if I thought (felt?) that?
The whole idea of a concentrated (am I assuming it's a concentration?) of detachment in order to write poems has always bewildered me. The very joy poetry always gives me can't possibly be disconnected from emotion, and frankly I don't want it to ever be.
Also, outside of this article I'm reminded again of the latest research on memory, and I mean WHAT a memory actually is, what it actually physically IS in the brain. And what we DO to whitewash. We create these (for lack of any skilled medical language, but I understand the research) posts which contain memory. And if something happens its experiences are held in this post. Then when you relay the experience to someone the next day you create a second post, which although it's merely the experience of talking about the original experience we LIVE the feelings of the experience to the point that we create a new post. And then a week later telling it again we create another post, and so on and so on until the original post is SO FAR AWAY! But it's emotion that drives that, wouldn't you say? That's my feeling (thought). It's emotion which saddles the experience and sets the TELLING into motion. And eventually, without even intending to, years later when telling the experience once again, it's usually not even close. Which is why hypnotherapy is so interesting, bringing us back to the original, and actual experience. And it's so shocking most of the time to people. Over and over I meet people who say that they can't believe that their minds changed the information so.
Anyway, I like this article a lot! Putting an end to the notion that emotion/thinking has a disconnect could start us getting closer to being more honest about one another. And this might create more conflict, but at least it's more open.
CAConrad
The whole idea of a concentrated (am I assuming it's a concentration?) of detachment in order to write poems has always bewildered me. The very joy poetry always gives me can't possibly be disconnected from emotion, and frankly I don't want it to ever be.
Also, outside of this article I'm reminded again of the latest research on memory, and I mean WHAT a memory actually is, what it actually physically IS in the brain. And what we DO to whitewash. We create these (for lack of any skilled medical language, but I understand the research) posts which contain memory. And if something happens its experiences are held in this post. Then when you relay the experience to someone the next day you create a second post, which although it's merely the experience of talking about the original experience we LIVE the feelings of the experience to the point that we create a new post. And then a week later telling it again we create another post, and so on and so on until the original post is SO FAR AWAY! But it's emotion that drives that, wouldn't you say? That's my feeling (thought). It's emotion which saddles the experience and sets the TELLING into motion. And eventually, without even intending to, years later when telling the experience once again, it's usually not even close. Which is why hypnotherapy is so interesting, bringing us back to the original, and actual experience. And it's so shocking most of the time to people. Over and over I meet people who say that they can't believe that their minds changed the information so.
Anyway, I like this article a lot! Putting an end to the notion that emotion/thinking has a disconnect could start us getting closer to being more honest about one another. And this might create more conflict, but at least it's more open.
CAConrad
Congrats to Amy King.
Lydia Davis is one of the very few writers about whom, at least once a month, I growl through gritted teeth, "When will another book of that incredible writing get published?"
Not only was it the anniversary of "Mission Accomplished," but May 1st was also announced as "national law day," on which the guy encouraged us to think upon the great things in the Constitution (forgetting, perhaps, that most of the rest of the world already has a holiday for May 1st, unrecognized in its country of origin). Made it the right day to end a tour of satirical performances--"what more can we add?"
Lydia Davis is one of the very few writers about whom, at least once a month, I growl through gritted teeth, "When will another book of that incredible writing get published?"
Not only was it the anniversary of "Mission Accomplished," but May 1st was also announced as "national law day," on which the guy encouraged us to think upon the great things in the Constitution (forgetting, perhaps, that most of the rest of the world already has a holiday for May 1st, unrecognized in its country of origin). Made it the right day to end a tour of satirical performances--"what more can we add?"
A lot here, but for now, I'll just say congrats to Amy King, a woman who offers a lot to internet poetry!
Ron,
The (rather lengthy) narrative below provides a dissent to the general felicity regarding Amy King's laureateship. Please note that I have nothing against King (beyond thinking her rude not to've replied to my e-mails requesting clarification); I don't know her work, her magazine, nor much about her blog. What made me offer, initially, to send Jon Leon's (perhaps overly antagonistic) "Communique" to the Poetics List is what prompts me to send the whole thing to you: I think the issue of the "negative malleability" (let's say) of online journals is an important one. It's terrific to peek in on Jacket being built, but what about a journal's being, for whatever reason, disassembled?
What is here is what I sent to Charles Bernstein and Joel Kuszai. Kuszai's response was "formal"--meaning he saw the (possibly) rude and objectionable "presentation" of Leon's complaint as being of more import than the substance: the distressing disappearance of work with no explanation whatsoever.
The letter follows:
<<<<<<<<<<
Dear Charles Bernstein and Joel Kuszai:
I am writing to you both directly after having been thwarted in my attempts to post two items to the POETICS list. I am concerned that Amy King may be using her position as Editor to reject postings that may reflect poorly on her. The post in question, a forwarded "communique" by Jon Leon, follows:
<<<
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:03:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: POETICS@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
Cc: Jon Leon
Subject: Communique April 2007 (fwd)
I offer'd to forward the note below for Jon Leon.
John Latta
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:12:10 -0400
From: Jon Leon
To: Jon Leon
Subject: Communique April 2007
On Sunday May 29, 2005 I received an email from Tom Beckett informing me that a selection of Diphasic Rumors were to appear in an issue of MiPOesias that he was
guest editing. MiPO has never been an exciting magazine but the quality of work that guest editors such as Tom Beckett and Gabriel Gudding were curating lent some much needed coherence to what appeared to be a vain schizoid commercial endeavor. The issue (
http://www.mipoesias.com/2006/corriente.html) appeared shortly thereafter as Volume 19 Issue 4 -- with audio recordings from many of the poets involved, interviews, and photos.
This morning while attempting to dig up some early poems of mine I took a look 2 years back at MiPOesias Volume 19 Issue 4 and noticed I was no longer listed
anywhere in the issue. My work had simply vanished. Sadly, my first thought was not that this was a mistake but an intentional revision of contemporary history. Actions like this are an example of the drawbacks of e-publishing and a major signal of the bitterness and hatred which proliferate throughout an incestuous and cronieistic scene. But furthermore it tarnishes the integrity of online magazines and reveals the flakiness of many editors. These days you don't have to stand behind anything you publish, you can simply delete it.
The siginificance of this action for me is not that I'm no longer included in MiPOesias -- recent issues subsequent to the hiring of Amy King as editor-in-chief have revealed the lack of editorial skill required to build a serious
venue for literature -- but rather a myriad of concerns for all writers, and the questions this behaviour raises about the direction of poetry and its dissemination.
For anyone concerned with the preservation of their work they choose to display online. I suggest not offering anything to Amy King or Didi Menendez, the editor-in-chief and publisher, respectively, of MiPOesias. I
have written these two individuals hoping for some explanation. Predictably, there's been
no reply.
Jon Leon
End of first post that was sent to the moderator and refused. Admittedly, there is unfriendly conjecture on the part of Jon Leon; there is, too, indication of a bonafide attempt to gain information as to the fate and whereabouts of Leon's poems. There is also a question seemingly vital to the poetry community: what about "erasures" of work on
online magazines?
Amy King's response on her blog was a rant and vilification of Jon Leon--since taken down--accusing him of bullying, etc. What remains, what replaced it, is at:
http://amyking.org/blog/?p=319
I next sent the following (with my attempted post appended) to Amy King:
<<<
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:00:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: Amy King, Didi Menendez
Cc: Jon Leon
Subject: Communique April 2007 (fwd)
Amy,
Can you explain why the note below that I posted to the POETICS listserv was never posted. In spite of its (rather mild) questioning of your and the MiPOesias crew's editorial talents, it asks a legitimate question, one that is not answered by the vitriole against Jon Leon that you posted on your blog. That you refuse to post the note smacks, regrettably, of censorship.
Sincerely,
John Latta
Predictably, as Jon Leon would say, I received no reply.
I then sent the following post to the POETICS list, a post, I'd note, of the sort that is routinely put up, one point and benefit of the POETICS list being to facilitate communication. These are--as I'm sure you'll recognize--simply the current members of the
List's board.
<<<
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:06:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: UB Poetics discussion group
Subject: e-mail addresses
I'm looking for current e-mail addresses for:
Charles Bernstein
Julia Bloch
Lori Emerson
Joel Kuszai
Nick Piombino
Many thanks in advance.
John Latta
lattaj@umich.edu
In reply, I received, presumably from Editor Amy King, the following terse answer:
<<<
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:32:53 -0400
From: Poetics List
To: John Latta
Subject: e-mail addresses
All correspondence to the Poetics List board, or editor, should be
sent to this address.
Which led me to write back the short letter following, with absolutely no expectation
that it would get by the Editor, Amy King, and to any member of the Poetics List board:
<<<
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:49:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: Poetics List
Subject: Re: e-mail addresses
To Amy King, and the Poetics List board,
I specifically do not want to communicate with the Poetics List editor, but with the board. My complaint, and it is a complaint, is regarding the refusal of the editor to post a message that questions her involvement in the disappearance of work from a
magazine, MiPoesias, that she edits (along with Didi Menendez). I consider the disappearance something that is of vital concern to the Poetics community. I consider the blocking of all posts that try to open up the subject for discussion an act of censorship.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Sincerely,
John Latta
Again, no reply. Which is why I am putting together this narrative of events. I appreciate both of you taking the time to read this, and hope to see some positive
response. Jon Leon has posted evidence of the absence at his blog, here:
http://jonleon.blogspot.com/2007/04/item.html
He reports that neither Amy King nor Didi Menendez has offered any explanation for the missing work.
I'll leave it at that. I've been at attentive (though rarely vociferous) member of the POETICS List for nigh on ten years. I now regularly blog at:
http://isola-di-rifiuti.blogspot.com/
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John Latta
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thanks,
John
The (rather lengthy) narrative below provides a dissent to the general felicity regarding Amy King's laureateship. Please note that I have nothing against King (beyond thinking her rude not to've replied to my e-mails requesting clarification); I don't know her work, her magazine, nor much about her blog. What made me offer, initially, to send Jon Leon's (perhaps overly antagonistic) "Communique" to the Poetics List is what prompts me to send the whole thing to you: I think the issue of the "negative malleability" (let's say) of online journals is an important one. It's terrific to peek in on Jacket being built, but what about a journal's being, for whatever reason, disassembled?
What is here is what I sent to Charles Bernstein and Joel Kuszai. Kuszai's response was "formal"--meaning he saw the (possibly) rude and objectionable "presentation" of Leon's complaint as being of more import than the substance: the distressing disappearance of work with no explanation whatsoever.
The letter follows:
<<<<<<<<<<
Dear Charles Bernstein and Joel Kuszai:
I am writing to you both directly after having been thwarted in my attempts to post two items to the POETICS list. I am concerned that Amy King may be using her position as Editor to reject postings that may reflect poorly on her. The post in question, a forwarded "communique" by Jon Leon, follows:
<<<
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2007 15:03:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: POETICS@LISTSERV.BUFFALO.EDU
Cc: Jon Leon
Subject: Communique April 2007 (fwd)
I offer'd to forward the note below for Jon Leon.
John Latta
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 22 Apr 2007 14:12:10 -0400
From: Jon Leon
To: Jon Leon
Subject: Communique April 2007
On Sunday May 29, 2005 I received an email from Tom Beckett informing me that a selection of Diphasic Rumors were to appear in an issue of MiPOesias that he was
guest editing. MiPO has never been an exciting magazine but the quality of work that guest editors such as Tom Beckett and Gabriel Gudding were curating lent some much needed coherence to what appeared to be a vain schizoid commercial endeavor. The issue (
http://www.mipoesias.com/2006/corriente.html) appeared shortly thereafter as Volume 19 Issue 4 -- with audio recordings from many of the poets involved, interviews, and photos.
This morning while attempting to dig up some early poems of mine I took a look 2 years back at MiPOesias Volume 19 Issue 4 and noticed I was no longer listed
anywhere in the issue. My work had simply vanished. Sadly, my first thought was not that this was a mistake but an intentional revision of contemporary history. Actions like this are an example of the drawbacks of e-publishing and a major signal of the bitterness and hatred which proliferate throughout an incestuous and cronieistic scene. But furthermore it tarnishes the integrity of online magazines and reveals the flakiness of many editors. These days you don't have to stand behind anything you publish, you can simply delete it.
The siginificance of this action for me is not that I'm no longer included in MiPOesias -- recent issues subsequent to the hiring of Amy King as editor-in-chief have revealed the lack of editorial skill required to build a serious
venue for literature -- but rather a myriad of concerns for all writers, and the questions this behaviour raises about the direction of poetry and its dissemination.
For anyone concerned with the preservation of their work they choose to display online. I suggest not offering anything to Amy King or Didi Menendez, the editor-in-chief and publisher, respectively, of MiPOesias. I
have written these two individuals hoping for some explanation. Predictably, there's been
no reply.
Jon Leon
End of first post that was sent to the moderator and refused. Admittedly, there is unfriendly conjecture on the part of Jon Leon; there is, too, indication of a bonafide attempt to gain information as to the fate and whereabouts of Leon's poems. There is also a question seemingly vital to the poetry community: what about "erasures" of work on
online magazines?
Amy King's response on her blog was a rant and vilification of Jon Leon--since taken down--accusing him of bullying, etc. What remains, what replaced it, is at:
http://amyking.org/blog/?p=319
I next sent the following (with my attempted post appended) to Amy King:
<<<
Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2007 12:00:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: Amy King, Didi Menendez
Cc: Jon Leon
Subject: Communique April 2007 (fwd)
Amy,
Can you explain why the note below that I posted to the POETICS listserv was never posted. In spite of its (rather mild) questioning of your and the MiPOesias crew's editorial talents, it asks a legitimate question, one that is not answered by the vitriole against Jon Leon that you posted on your blog. That you refuse to post the note smacks, regrettably, of censorship.
Sincerely,
John Latta
Predictably, as Jon Leon would say, I received no reply.
I then sent the following post to the POETICS list, a post, I'd note, of the sort that is routinely put up, one point and benefit of the POETICS list being to facilitate communication. These are--as I'm sure you'll recognize--simply the current members of the
List's board.
<<<
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 10:06:33 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: UB Poetics discussion group
Subject: e-mail addresses
I'm looking for current e-mail addresses for:
Charles Bernstein
Julia Bloch
Lori Emerson
Joel Kuszai
Nick Piombino
Many thanks in advance.
John Latta
lattaj@umich.edu
In reply, I received, presumably from Editor Amy King, the following terse answer:
<<<
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:32:53 -0400
From: Poetics List
To: John Latta
Subject: e-mail addresses
All correspondence to the Poetics List board, or editor, should be
sent to this address.
Which led me to write back the short letter following, with absolutely no expectation
that it would get by the Editor, Amy King, and to any member of the Poetics List board:
<<<
Date: Mon, 30 Apr 2007 14:49:32 -0400 (EDT)
From: John Latta
To: Poetics List
Subject: Re: e-mail addresses
To Amy King, and the Poetics List board,
I specifically do not want to communicate with the Poetics List editor, but with the board. My complaint, and it is a complaint, is regarding the refusal of the editor to post a message that questions her involvement in the disappearance of work from a
magazine, MiPoesias, that she edits (along with Didi Menendez). I consider the disappearance something that is of vital concern to the Poetics community. I consider the blocking of all posts that try to open up the subject for discussion an act of censorship.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
Sincerely,
John Latta
Again, no reply. Which is why I am putting together this narrative of events. I appreciate both of you taking the time to read this, and hope to see some positive
response. Jon Leon has posted evidence of the absence at his blog, here:
http://jonleon.blogspot.com/2007/04/item.html
He reports that neither Amy King nor Didi Menendez has offered any explanation for the missing work.
I'll leave it at that. I've been at attentive (though rarely vociferous) member of the POETICS List for nigh on ten years. I now regularly blog at:
http://isola-di-rifiuti.blogspot.com/
Thank you.
Sincerely,
John Latta
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Thanks,
John
Dear Ron, Lady J, and Andy G,
Thanks for the congrats on the laureateship – I’m glad to be in the position of wondering what it means and what to do with it. It’s intimidating to follow Ron and Jilly; I know I won’t fill their blog shoes as I don’t blog often enough or with as much intellectual energy and rigor as they because, frankly, I’m intermittently lazy and easily distracted. In fact, I’m writing this directly before my 6:00 class, with apologies for hurried words.
I hate to give this Leon-now-Latta matter any more attention than has already been wasted, but will do so, again, hopefully briefly and quickly. For the Silliman blog record, I was not editor of MiPO when Leon’s poems appeared. They’re not in Google’s cache, so that should say something about how long they’ve been missing (though I don’t know how often Google’s bots do their rounds). I did not make them disappear, as Leon seems to want everyone to believe in his little diatribe about me and my editorial skills. Moreover, the manner in which Leon went about pursuing their disappearance was an attack layered with insults. As a result of his antics, my response remains that I certainly will not act on his behalf to investigate the cause of his poems’ disappearance – in any capacity. It is also quite clear that Leon does not actually care how the poems disappeared or why.
** Leon distributed his second email (that Latta posted here) to discredit me, and without proof (or waiting for a reply) declared MiPO guilty of the “intentional revision of contemporary history” (quite a grandiose proclamation about one’s work!) on the very same night that he sent his disingenuous inquiry to me; thus, he determined the publicizing of his self-declared persecution to be a priority over waiting for a reply.** Additionally, he managed to insult the poets and the work that I’ve published in the process, a gesture that carries significant weight.
Let me put it another way: I find it quite strange that Leon would jump to the conclusion that his poems were intentionally deleted upon finding them missing from the site. In fact, this is one of the known hazards of internet publishing. I occasionally find that links to my own poems are dead, which leads me to investigate further: sometimes the work has been archived and is located at a new link; sometimes the work is simply missing. Even in the latter case, I do not jump to the conclusion that someone is out to get me and delete my work, simultaneously sending out a bogus inquiry to the editor while also sending out an unsubstantiated and accusatory rant that insults the publication, the editor, and the poets that have been published there in one fell swoop. But that is exactly the route that Leon took. Certainly he didn’t think he could behave in such nasty fashion and then expect me to act on his behalf.
***The “substance” here is that I have been publicly implicated in an unfounded claim of the “removal” of Leon’s poems, actively insulted, had the work I’ve published insulted, as well as being named in his “warning” for poets not to send work my way – all in the course of a 12 hour period! Why should such behavior be secondary to Leon’s original accusation? Why should the insulting and hypocritical way he went about insincerely “querying” be ignored? Such behavior should be named for its hypocrisy and as well as its intentional hurtfulness. Even more substantially, I do not obediently respond to being publicly attacked and insulted – and that his behavior was “virtual” is just as real as if Leon had acted the same in person.***
As for the Latta affair, when Latta sent Leon’s email to the Poetics list, I asked the board if I should release and respond to it. The entire board unanimously felt the post was without merit as well as being an attack on me. Latta seems to believe I edit the list without the consultation of the board, so he then attempted to tell on me--and it’s worth noting that he has been selective in his report above, failing to post the responses he received that illustrate the board’s support. One response in particular noted that the attack on me was unfounded, without merit, and a private affair that would not be allowed on the list, regardless of who was being named—those kinds of posts are not welcome. I’ve also been encouraged to be more discriminating in what goes through to the list in an effort to elevate the levels of discussion above such ad hominem clamoring.
The notion that Latta has been censored is preposterous. The list is an edited one, which means (as noted in the Welcome message) the list editors reserve the right to decide what messages will be approved for posting. Submitting posts to the list does not guarantee that they will be published anymore than submitting letters to an editor or poems to a journal guarantees their publication. The board has encouraged me from the start to take more control of the list as a publication and steer it thusly. Coincidentally enough, my own immediate and general vision is to rid the list of recurring baiting and ad hominem posts. They detract and devalue the list as a publication and silence potential posters who don’t want to waste time on unfounded accusations or discussions focused on personal dramas.
This case just so happens to illustrate and address the necessity of such editing: I have now, once again, wasted a significant chunk of time defending myself against personalized accusations in what has become a tag-team effort by Leon and Latta – on a list of 1400 members, who would want to be subjected to the publication of hearsay in the public realm? The typical response has been to lurk rather than make one's self visible as a target … I hope eliminating that threat will encourage more folks to join in and participate in even more productive discussions on poetics. I don’t have a grander vision for the list just yet, though I plan to chat with the board as I learn and formulate my own ideas, participate a bit more myself, and even solicit creative work and related posts on poetics in the future, once any residual tenor of negativity has dissipated.
Now I’ve really gotta run, but once again, thanks for the votes and encouragement – I’m looking forward to earning the title (& hopefully not contributing to Logan’s “joke”!)~
Amy
Thanks for the congrats on the laureateship – I’m glad to be in the position of wondering what it means and what to do with it. It’s intimidating to follow Ron and Jilly; I know I won’t fill their blog shoes as I don’t blog often enough or with as much intellectual energy and rigor as they because, frankly, I’m intermittently lazy and easily distracted. In fact, I’m writing this directly before my 6:00 class, with apologies for hurried words.
I hate to give this Leon-now-Latta matter any more attention than has already been wasted, but will do so, again, hopefully briefly and quickly. For the Silliman blog record, I was not editor of MiPO when Leon’s poems appeared. They’re not in Google’s cache, so that should say something about how long they’ve been missing (though I don’t know how often Google’s bots do their rounds). I did not make them disappear, as Leon seems to want everyone to believe in his little diatribe about me and my editorial skills. Moreover, the manner in which Leon went about pursuing their disappearance was an attack layered with insults. As a result of his antics, my response remains that I certainly will not act on his behalf to investigate the cause of his poems’ disappearance – in any capacity. It is also quite clear that Leon does not actually care how the poems disappeared or why.
** Leon distributed his second email (that Latta posted here) to discredit me, and without proof (or waiting for a reply) declared MiPO guilty of the “intentional revision of contemporary history” (quite a grandiose proclamation about one’s work!) on the very same night that he sent his disingenuous inquiry to me; thus, he determined the publicizing of his self-declared persecution to be a priority over waiting for a reply.** Additionally, he managed to insult the poets and the work that I’ve published in the process, a gesture that carries significant weight.
Let me put it another way: I find it quite strange that Leon would jump to the conclusion that his poems were intentionally deleted upon finding them missing from the site. In fact, this is one of the known hazards of internet publishing. I occasionally find that links to my own poems are dead, which leads me to investigate further: sometimes the work has been archived and is located at a new link; sometimes the work is simply missing. Even in the latter case, I do not jump to the conclusion that someone is out to get me and delete my work, simultaneously sending out a bogus inquiry to the editor while also sending out an unsubstantiated and accusatory rant that insults the publication, the editor, and the poets that have been published there in one fell swoop. But that is exactly the route that Leon took. Certainly he didn’t think he could behave in such nasty fashion and then expect me to act on his behalf.
***The “substance” here is that I have been publicly implicated in an unfounded claim of the “removal” of Leon’s poems, actively insulted, had the work I’ve published insulted, as well as being named in his “warning” for poets not to send work my way – all in the course of a 12 hour period! Why should such behavior be secondary to Leon’s original accusation? Why should the insulting and hypocritical way he went about insincerely “querying” be ignored? Such behavior should be named for its hypocrisy and as well as its intentional hurtfulness. Even more substantially, I do not obediently respond to being publicly attacked and insulted – and that his behavior was “virtual” is just as real as if Leon had acted the same in person.***
As for the Latta affair, when Latta sent Leon’s email to the Poetics list, I asked the board if I should release and respond to it. The entire board unanimously felt the post was without merit as well as being an attack on me. Latta seems to believe I edit the list without the consultation of the board, so he then attempted to tell on me--and it’s worth noting that he has been selective in his report above, failing to post the responses he received that illustrate the board’s support. One response in particular noted that the attack on me was unfounded, without merit, and a private affair that would not be allowed on the list, regardless of who was being named—those kinds of posts are not welcome. I’ve also been encouraged to be more discriminating in what goes through to the list in an effort to elevate the levels of discussion above such ad hominem clamoring.
The notion that Latta has been censored is preposterous. The list is an edited one, which means (as noted in the Welcome message) the list editors reserve the right to decide what messages will be approved for posting. Submitting posts to the list does not guarantee that they will be published anymore than submitting letters to an editor or poems to a journal guarantees their publication. The board has encouraged me from the start to take more control of the list as a publication and steer it thusly. Coincidentally enough, my own immediate and general vision is to rid the list of recurring baiting and ad hominem posts. They detract and devalue the list as a publication and silence potential posters who don’t want to waste time on unfounded accusations or discussions focused on personal dramas.
This case just so happens to illustrate and address the necessity of such editing: I have now, once again, wasted a significant chunk of time defending myself against personalized accusations in what has become a tag-team effort by Leon and Latta – on a list of 1400 members, who would want to be subjected to the publication of hearsay in the public realm? The typical response has been to lurk rather than make one's self visible as a target … I hope eliminating that threat will encourage more folks to join in and participate in even more productive discussions on poetics. I don’t have a grander vision for the list just yet, though I plan to chat with the board as I learn and formulate my own ideas, participate a bit more myself, and even solicit creative work and related posts on poetics in the future, once any residual tenor of negativity has dissipated.
Now I’ve really gotta run, but once again, thanks for the votes and encouragement – I’m looking forward to earning the title (& hopefully not contributing to Logan’s “joke”!)~
Amy
Ah well, silly me then! You need to stop rubbing poor old Bush's nose in the poo poo though. No one could have stopped him but in my estimation, people could have united behind him and then, staved off this inevitable conflict between our two noble tribes of Sunni and Shi'i. That was my thinking anyway....to delay it for a bit longer.
I actually see the "victim blaming" the US gov is doing to the Iraqis i.e. "solve your own problem" is not at all untrue. The muslims do have to correct this problem and hopefully very soon.
But nevermind all that, who here supports the BEES? No one has really paid much attention to this extraordinarily important problem in which bee hives are collapsing world wide. Forget Global Warming...you'll be hard pressed to deal with the problems there at the level of the thermohaline heat distribution system at the bottom of the sea (inherently much more important than any sort of warming that goes on at the surface).
I mean come on now...how many people know that water is a paradox? The only liquid really that floats when it freezes and lucky for us eh? Otherwise the oceans would have frozen a very long time ago.
But the bees. What about the bees?
That's a whole other type of army that leads to the destruction of a significant number of humans via starvation.
I highly suggest a good thorough reading of the 16th Sura in the Quran called "The Bee". In it, you will get a complete tour of the food chain and a diagnosis of problems that seem to come out of nowhere.
And salaams Ron. Thanks for correcting me.
I actually see the "victim blaming" the US gov is doing to the Iraqis i.e. "solve your own problem" is not at all untrue. The muslims do have to correct this problem and hopefully very soon.
But nevermind all that, who here supports the BEES? No one has really paid much attention to this extraordinarily important problem in which bee hives are collapsing world wide. Forget Global Warming...you'll be hard pressed to deal with the problems there at the level of the thermohaline heat distribution system at the bottom of the sea (inherently much more important than any sort of warming that goes on at the surface).
I mean come on now...how many people know that water is a paradox? The only liquid really that floats when it freezes and lucky for us eh? Otherwise the oceans would have frozen a very long time ago.
But the bees. What about the bees?
That's a whole other type of army that leads to the destruction of a significant number of humans via starvation.
I highly suggest a good thorough reading of the 16th Sura in the Quran called "The Bee". In it, you will get a complete tour of the food chain and a diagnosis of problems that seem to come out of nowhere.
And salaams Ron. Thanks for correcting me.
And if it is any consolation, Mr. G. Gudding has a great essay on these types of things referred to as 'poetry wars' that appears in your own magazine.
Mr. Gudding states:
4. The Narcissist IS fascinating—but not for the reasons the Narcissist thinks. S/he is fascinating because the energy s/he will expend in micromanaging the self image is so profoundly exceptional. People just sort of stand there slack-jawed wondering if this person has a life. The Narcissist however will mistranslate the fascination of others as admiration.
You know...I saw that little treatise on this type of thing quite some time ago and was so self centered that I thought he'd written it just about me! Hahaha...and now that I can see that real wars actually matter..and these types of things are just sillinesses and petty jealousies and misunderstandings...what a person needs is a bit of PERSPECTIVE!
I think his essay in MiPo has a lot of merit...full of exceptional and wonderous observations.
Good luck to you in any event. Looks like the world is just getting heated up and your talents will be needed to interpret the tribulations and aftermaths of it all. And don't forget to laugh.
We only live because we cannot die. (The villagers often say this in South Lebanon).
Peace
Post a Comment
Mr. Gudding states:
4. The Narcissist IS fascinating—but not for the reasons the Narcissist thinks. S/he is fascinating because the energy s/he will expend in micromanaging the self image is so profoundly exceptional. People just sort of stand there slack-jawed wondering if this person has a life. The Narcissist however will mistranslate the fascination of others as admiration.
You know...I saw that little treatise on this type of thing quite some time ago and was so self centered that I thought he'd written it just about me! Hahaha...and now that I can see that real wars actually matter..and these types of things are just sillinesses and petty jealousies and misunderstandings...what a person needs is a bit of PERSPECTIVE!
I think his essay in MiPo has a lot of merit...full of exceptional and wonderous observations.
Good luck to you in any event. Looks like the world is just getting heated up and your talents will be needed to interpret the tribulations and aftermaths of it all. And don't forget to laugh.
We only live because we cannot die. (The villagers often say this in South Lebanon).
Peace
<< Home
