tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post2413233202350860796..comments2008-04-16T13:25:39.822-04:00Jack Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06274460430707829174noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-7483332321044239482008-04-16T13:25:00.000-04:002008-04-16T13:25:00.000-04:00Claire is a gem, no question.LCBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16957659199628436203noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-36946352475233587302008-04-12T10:27:00.000-04:002008-04-12T10:27:00.000-04:00My honesty is free and is my most damning trait. I agree about the cream. There is always cream.Jack Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06274460430707829174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-26282803482339989852008-04-11T16:19:00.000-04:002008-04-11T16:19:00.000-04:00The MFA world makes me uncomfortable, too. But as with any construct like that -- where a mass of people are doing the same thing (i.e., writing poems) -- some cream rises to the top. Claire is a gem. Shannon Tharp, another fine young poet who just happened to get an MFA, is a gem also. Andrew Mister, whose chapbook HOTELS (Fewer & Further Press), which you would probably like, I think, also has an MFA. I could go on.<BR/><BR/>A lot of my friends who have MFA's are pretty ambivalent about it all. It's not an illuminati kind of thing. By the way, I don't have an MFA and I've railed against that machine quite a bit over the years. What's left is the poetry. I try to stick to that these days. <BR/><BR/>Thanks for being so honest, man! Even if I don't totally agree, I appreciate the bristles in the all too polite poesy blog world.<BR/><BR/>MasseyJosephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05981577788706579406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-3449519270248412532008-04-11T04:43:00.000-04:002008-04-11T04:43:00.000-04:00The creative writing industry is the MFA and things like the MFA. The MFA in poetry claims to teach people how to write. What happens is that the students start sounding more and more like one another and like their teachers. Your audience is always the other students and the teachers, so your work ends up pleasing only them and people like them, other students in other programs.<BR/><BR/>Everyone networks and helps their friends but the industry people generally stick to themselves, only showing up to readings that are put on and attended by their fellow students and teachers. They don't support the community of artists and poets and they aren't interested in it because there is no tangible reward to going to a reading by a "nobody." Not all MFA-ers are like this, but it is definitely common.<BR/><BR/>"Blind" is a joke. If you study poetry all your life, you know when one of your students' manuscripts comes across your desk.<BR/><BR/>"Legitimization" is a scary word that I don't want to touch, but if only my friends read my chapbooks and journals and only other poets liked what they read in them, I am illegitimate. I too have won awards. It felt good, and the money was nice, but I don't think I felt legitimate, not for long at least. I like being known and liked and hated by other poets, but I really hope that I will be liked and hated by non-poets for my work.<BR/><BR/>Being a poet is not my career. It is my lifestyle. It is my eccentricity. I am obsessed with language and language arts. I read poetry every day. I write all the time that I am awake, and 90 per cent. of it is horrible. I still write, and I never feel like I am getting better. It makes me happy when people disagree. I have no hope of ever making real money from poetry, writing it or teaching how to write it.<BR/><BR/>I am not against MFA's, but I don't want one, and I don't like them, and I realize that there is a certain aesthetic that accompanies poetry that comes from them.<BR/><BR/>I despise the process and result of workshops.<BR/><BR/>I bought Joseph Massey's book and the one he recommended today. I can't wait to read them.<BR/><BR/>Thank you for the comments.Jack Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06274460430707829174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-70001630808652705792008-04-10T14:03:00.000-04:002008-04-10T14:03:00.000-04:00Please define "industry poet." As you have it here, you're an industry poet if you know other poets who publish you and themselves and etc. If anything, your attitude seems very much a part of the MFA world where "legitimization" comes in the form of blind readings via contests and incessant stamp-licking. Check out A SECRET LOCATION ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE for a taste of the "industry" as it existed in the 60's and 70's. There really is such a thing as community, Virgnia, and it's not out out to get you and deprive your "ilk" of their ink!<BR/><BR/>Claire's book stands on its own.<BR/><BR/>Take it easy --<BR/><BR/>Joseph MasseyJosephhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05981577788706579406noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-31932497000314640132008-04-10T11:53:00.000-04:002008-04-10T11:53:00.000-04:00the word gives me chills when I hear it.Jack Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06274460430707829174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-62181258385842680202008-04-10T11:00:00.000-04:002008-04-10T11:00:00.000-04:00Workshop's a dirty word.<BR/>-----<BR/><BR/>Claire Becker, 25<BR/><BR/><BR/>Rating, updating.<BR/>A bodily look: name.<BR/>Even the unseen have<BR/>according to morpheme shapes.<BR/>Every name connects,<BR/><BR/>artists, prisoners, their ages too.<BR/>Politicians, celebrities,<BR/>each time one changes.<BR/>To know exact ages, updated.<BR/>Every one I know I want.<BR/><BR/>Every one I know I want<BR/>to know exact ages, updated <BR/>each time one changes.<BR/>Politicians, celebrities,<BR/>artists, prisoners, their ages too.<BR/><BR/>Every name connects, <BR/>according to morpheme shapes. <BR/>Even the unseen have <BR/>a bodily look: name, <BR/>rating, updating.Clairehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14222589968534711649noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-43665915771448788962008-04-09T12:39:00.000-04:002008-04-09T12:39:00.000-04:00I went to Saint Mary's for my MFA, and I only feel sorry for myself on occasion.koakeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11758593213221496323noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-29911927347857022402008-04-09T06:34:00.000-04:002008-04-09T06:34:00.000-04:00It isn't hot angst. Give me a break. There's nothing wrong with being critical. Also, I said I liked it, and I did. When I saw the book, I bought it right away. Come on. I thought my review was pretty nice.Jack Morganhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06274460430707829174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-31708984669147323.post-79296829043132176092008-04-09T05:54:00.000-04:002008-04-09T05:54:00.000-04:00Dude, you gotta chill on your hot angst. <I>It's poetry.</I>CLAY BANEShttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14658806946108194962noreply@blogger.com