Follow up to yesterday's posted poem.

On Facebook, I posted the poem LEARN TO CRY DRY TEARS, based on something which happened at a poetry venue last night. Here is a response by a long-running Major Figure in Los Angeles poetry: Suzanne Lummis But does writing and reading poetry make you happy? At least half the time? If it doesn't, why not seek out something that does? As the expression goes, "life is too short..." My response: Writing and reading poetry makes me happy. But there are plenty of mean boys and girls in our community. In short, please don't say to me, "it's not us, it's you.". Things aren't that clearcut.

New poem LEARN TO CRY DRY TEARS

Wary is as wary does
Seven years isn't enough
To change certain minds
Don't raise your voice
Above the rafters
Don't show the back of your hand
Don't show the front of your fist
Don't give anyone cause to say:
SEE, HE'LL NEVER CHANGE!
Just wait for the right moment
To slip away with dignity
And self-regard intact
As the Carnival of Verbal Arts
Carries on regardless.

Something that all of us in the poetry community are guilty of.

A couple of nights ago, I went to see a poet at a venue in Los Angeles.  He doesn't do features very often, so I wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity to see him.

Unfortunately, the turnout was small.  And, I'm assuming that part of the reason was that some of the poet's friends/colleagues don't go or don't want to go to that venue.  And the poet featuring there wasn't going to be enough for those friends/colleagues to make a one-time exception.

This happens a lot.

People don't go to poetry venues for one or more of these reasons:
A. Dislike of the host/hosts
B. Not wanting to travel a long distance
C. Start time of the reading being too early/too late
D. Perception of the venue as being "bad" or "uncool" or insufficiently literate
E. Perception of the venue as being unappreciative of their poetry
F. Dislike of the host/hosts' choice of features


If you're a poet in LA/OC, you've probably nixed going to venues (at one time or another) for at least three of the reasons listed above.

Being set straight yet again about Los Angeles poetry's desire to keep the herd thinned.

So the Important poet and I have been continuing to e-mail and, among other things, I was reminded that my standards for which poets should get features (a mixture of various types--and sometimes skill levels) aren't correct ones. I would allow too much--the horror, the horror--mediocrity to be put on display.

Along with that axiom, I was reminded that if poets aren't able to get features at venues where, say, Red Hen Press authors, Pushcart Prize winners and RATTLE (or other literary magazine) editors are favored (including most of the remaining "coffeehouse" readings), then it means the poets should write "better."

I know I'm showing my stupidity/naivete/lack of undertanding again, but it seems to me that a big, diverse city like Los Angeles ought to have a more diverse small-reading scene than it does.

But chasing prestige (or being in the presence of it) is paramount with a lot of people now.

And so the poetry scene in Los Angeles will continue to be exclusive and secretsecret--with the late Hyperpoets reading at Venice's Rose Cafe being the template for the high-toned, often too-dry and too-self-consciously "I'm writing TRUE poetry, as any fool can see" artistic desert.