"American poetry doesn't mean anything in France anymore. Everyone in America thinks they are a poet. How can we be expected to trudge through all that American poetry looking for what is good and who are the real poets?"
I must attribute this quote to several people. It first came from the French translator Jean Migrenne over a lunch I shared with him at La Coupole in Paris. Following that conversation the quote was repeated to me throughout Paris by poets, booksellers, publishers, and those who read and appreciated poetry.
It's something I've believed to be true all along and it was nice to have had that belief validated. Still I thought it would be interesting to give those here in America in the poetry field the opportunity to defend themselves and answer to the quote. So I sent the quote out (with proper context) to dozens of publishers, poets, English professors, critics, 'zine editors, and readers-most of whom were local. I waited a couple of months and no one wished to comment on what the Parisians had told me. Now up against Mr. Van Valin's deadline, I have chosen to use this column as a platform by which to request you, the good and intelligent readers of Whistling Shade, to speak out and debate this quote.
And, perhaps, it cannot be argued properly. I have said from day one that everyone with a pen and pencil thinks they can be a poet here in America. With so few years in life to read the books we actually want to read, who has time to waste with ink spilled in ignorance? I've said it for years to a volley of dirty looks and yet the Parisians have picked it up on their own.
I must say (with the little modesty I can muster) that I am batting 1.000 these days. First the preceding and then I learned, after having written two columns on the absolute idiocy of the F. Scott Fitzgerald Writing Academy, that the Academy has decided to close its "illustrious" doors without ever coming close to opening them. Now I want to hear what you have to say. Bring it on. I can take it. I thrive on good and honest debate. Defend our poetic tic. Defend the Academy (alright, fair's fair, you can't. But you could tell me where all the donated money went). But let me know who you are; I will not cater to the anonymous. Also, don't send lists of good American poetry. I already know there is good American poetry. There is even great American poetry. That is not the issue. The question is that of perspective of American poetry and the manner by which we are harvesting that poetry.
Send what you will in and I will present the best in next quarter's column-unless the "no comment" stance remains, in which case, the French win-as, culturally, they should.
Write your hymns and venom to: shadydealing@aol.com
I eagerly await all responses with a twiddle in my thumb and a Cognac at my side.
© 2006 by D. Garcia-Wahl.