I Would Like the ‘Death of Poetry’ to Be, Well, Dead

No doubt many of you, like me, are sick and tired of the annual “Is Poetry Dead?” essay that invariably appears…somewhere. These essays usually crop up close to April.

April is now, as we know too well, ‘Poetry Month.’ During these 30 days, poets are asked to give interviews, people who never read poetry might be asked to read a poem (gasp!), and the essays on the ‘Death of Poetry’ proliferate.

In these scintillating essays, we often learn the following:

• No one reads poetry
• Poetry presses are going under by the boatload
• Independent bookstores are dying (does not have to do with poetry but we may as well mention it in our essay for filler to add some excitement)
• No one understands poetry
• Poets do not make money

We know people read poetry. Even if it is not poetry that we like, people are reading it. Didn’t 4,000 to 5,000 people recently attend the AWP Conference in Atlanta? You can visit my blogroll and find a bunch of people reading and talking about poetry. Then, you can visit their blogrolls and find more people reading and talking about poetry, but you won’t have time. You really should be writing! So, you can just trust me on this one.

The birth of POD means that poetry presses can flourish. I saw an invitation to local DC Poetry presses for a meet and greet. Oh my, I had no idea that we had so many presses in town. I am listing only the three that I can remember.

VRZHU
Red Morning Press
No Tell Books

Here are some more presses that poets I know have talked about that are not based in DC:

Ghost Road Press
Switchback Books
WordTech — many imprints

Sandra offers reviews and pictures of books from more poetry presses.

Enjoy not reading poetry.

Your friendly blogger,
DA