View this link:

http://odalisqued.blogspot.com/2009/01/small-essay-on-anxious-swarm.html

A look at poetry in the economic downturn by ODALI$QUED:

Likely [the recession] means no more gluts of overprinted books of poetry and no more b.s. anthologies. Much of that side noise that had to do with c.v. fluffing will go dead. Those who are not totally, pathologically committed to poetry will probably stop writing, and writing about, poetry. I imagine in the urban literary centers, literary activity will fare a little better (for no other reason than poetry is good, free diversion); but those disconnected from the centers of power will be exactly that – disconnected – as travel becomes increasingly impossible.

Good news for poetry. There is essentially only an academic market for most small press books and they’re mostly published for academic advancement. If we want poetry to escape the chains of academia, we’re going to have to create a new market and write for reasons other than filling out holes in our resumes.

While one would suspect that this downturn would mean an increase of online publications, p.d.f. distribution, etc., the increased / centralization of even online resources will mean that only certain voices will be heard or noticed. The computers of the struggling and soon to be struggling will break, and often not be replaced. Home internet access will also, with tight budgets, go, as will, among the defeated, the will to engage in non-economically productive activity or watch others, with more privilege, so engage. There is a difference between what one thinks about poetry and online discourse about it when one is reading and writing from a public library computer and when one is reading and writing from one’s home.

Bad news for poets? Not necessarily. I’ll agree there is a difference when you are writing from a public library, but it’s not necessarily a bad difference. The constant connection to mass media created by a computer can be stupefying and numbing. The more separation a poet has from the mundane the better the poetry.

Evolution happens in isolated ecosystems. When I write recently I’ve been shutting off my internet connection and doing it by hand/portable typewriter in an attempt to create isolation. As ODALI$QUED’s said, “this is a chance for us to lose those tails.”

Anyway, library poetry could be what young poets need to actually start reading works instead of just incessantly writing.