to write a poem for Bill Knott. I really want to. Maybe it will be like fixing him a grilled cheese sandwich with some Campbell's tomato soup.
Yes, that's the kind of poem I want to write.
I think I will.
About Me
- Paul
- Paul Guest is the author of four volumes of poetry and a memoir. His debut, The Resurrection of the Body and the Ruin of the World, was awarded the 2002 New Issues Poetry Prize. His second collection, Notes for My Body Double, was awarded the 2006 Prairie Schooner Book Prize. His third collection, My Index of Slightly Horrifying Knowledge, was published by Ecco Press/HarperCollins in 2008. His fourth collection, Because Everything Is Terrible, was published by Diode Editions. His poems have appeared in Harper's, The Paris Review, Poetry, Tin House, The Kenyon Review, and elsewhere. His memoir, One More Theory About Happiness, was published by Ecco in May 2010 and selected for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program. The recipient of a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2007 Whiting Writers' Award, Guest lives in Charlottesville, Virginia.
8 comments:
Will you please, please co-edit an anthology, A Nice Grilled Chees Sandwich: Poems For Bill Knott?
It would be a blockbuster, but still, somehow, a failure.
I hear a call for submissions. Do you?
You could just write the call for submissions AS the poem.
Yeah, I'm serious.
I bet you would get a ton of submissions. Lots of people have been blogging about him since that interview.
I think this is a good idea. "A Nice Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Poems For Bill Knott?" is the perfect title for this instantly appealing anthology. There's a fair number of bullshit anthologies being put out there today, bullshit because the paramount ulterior motive is to court hype and publicity, with publishing truly outstanding poems as a tangential thought. (By the way, this is why I really enjoy Paul Guest's oeuvre, he is a talented, profound poet who got published the old-fashioned way, because he has a natural poetic genius and writes profound poems with fine technical craftmanship.) But I digress.
This "Grilled Cheese Sandwhich" anthology would stand out as vital and sorely needed by the poetic community and general public: 1. it would shed light on an ignored poet Bill Knott (he's not even an entry in Wikipedia which is a shame, because some of his work is good, lasting, and deserves to be a part of the literary canon along with his peers in age and publishing record) who is obviously awful at playing the public relations/publicity game to preserve his own work, and 2. just as important, the anthology would be an avenue for showcasing exciting young (by young I don't mean actual age, but talented and as yet unknown) poets today as their poems would comprise the book. Paul Guest has the perfect human touch, nuanced, to pull off this anthology. Along with Josh Hanson (U of Montana is one of the best creative writing programs in the country not in hype but the caliber of poet they graduate) who proposed the anthology they'd make a good editorial team. As for the type of poems that would be published in the anthology--aesthetics--that's for Josh, Paul and whoever else comes on board as a Head Editor for this poetry project to decide. Personally, I'd appreciate a female editor, because embracing and thoughtfully processing multiple points of view of what constitutes excellent poetry is what pushes the poetry frontier to the benefit of *all* living poets, in the spirit of Ezra Pound's still very relevant battle cry for poetry, "Make it New!"
I've looked at some of the independent presses and David Baratier's Pavement Saw Press is an admirable model to follow. No fuss, no narrow-mindedness, that I can see; the mission statement is just to put out the most f*ckin' amazing poetry.
The reason why the general public seems to read less poetry these days, or poetry seems a marginalized artform (compared to fiction) today is the fault of us the poetry community alone, we are not identifying, publishing, and aggressively promoting enough outstanding poets like Paul Guest, Eduardo Corral, Ali Stein, or Amanda Auchter. These people deserve to be known more, if they were, we would have more general, average readers reading poetry, buying poetry. Don't you see? People are sick of the tv, movies, video games, and being isolated from other human beings by technology. People want to love poetry and go to poetry readings with their friends, why don't we give them good poems and poets to love?! But I digress.
"A Nice Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Poems For Bill Knott?" would be a step toward remedying this present state of poetry. Set the example with this anthology Paul and Josh, show judiciousness and the innovation in poetry with this anthology, just as Bill Knott has attempted his whole life to do (sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully, but he always tried and cared!), and publish our best new or little-known poets. If they are your friends, great! If you don't know them, great! Just as long as those poems and poets are the most fiercely artistically ambitious. Another idea: approach Knott about this project, he may be interested in lending a hand; he seems to love poetry to death.
I don't mean to project such responsibility upon people I do not know, or even set an agenda for what is your anthology idea, so my comment here you can just take it or leave it as you like, but nowadays I observe a trend of too many poets far too concerned with seeing their name and poem in print, and it hurts me badly as both a poet and reader to see this, because this is done to the detriment and slow destruction of poetry, which is one of the most valuable and sublime artforms human beings ever created to understand the cosmos/world and their distinctly absurd situation in it. Poetry does not deserve this.
HD
I think this is a good idea. "A Nice Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Poems For Bill Knott?" is the perfect title for this instantly appealing anthology. There's a fair number of bullshit anthologies being put out there today, bullshit because the paramount ulterior motive is to court hype and publicity, with publishing truly outstanding poems as a tangential thought. (By the way, this is why I really enjoy Paul Guest's oeuvre, he is a talented, profound poet who got published the old-fashioned way, because he has a natural poetic genius and writes profound poems with fine technical craftmanship.) But I digress.
This "Grilled Cheese Sandwhich" anthology would stand out as vital and sorely needed by the poetic community and general public: 1. it would shed light on an ignored poet Bill Knott (he's not even an entry in Wikipedia which is a shame, because some of his work is good, lasting, and deserves to be a part of the literary canon along with his peers in age and publishing record) who is obviously awful at playing the public relations/publicity game to preserve his own work, and 2. just as important, the anthology would be an avenue for showcasing exciting young (by young I don't mean actual age, but talented and as yet unknown) poets today as their poems would comprise the book. Paul Guest has the perfect human touch, nuanced, to pull off this anthology. Along with Josh Hanson (U of Montana is one of the best creative writing programs in the country not in hype but the caliber of poet they graduate) who proposed the anthology they'd make a good editorial team. As for the type of poems that would be published in the anthology--aesthetics--that's for Josh, Paul and whoever else comes on board as a Head Editor for this poetry project to decide. Personally, I'd appreciate a female editor, because embracing and thoughtfully processing multiple points of view of what constitutes excellent poetry is what pushes the poetry frontier to the benefit of *all* living poets, in the spirit of Ezra Pound's still very relevant battle cry for poetry, "Make it New!"
I've looked at some of the independent presses and David Baratier's Pavement Saw Press is an admirable model to follow. No fuss, no narrow-mindedness, that I can see; the mission statement is just to put out the most f*ckin' amazing poetry.
The reason why the general public seems to read less poetry these days, or poetry seems a marginalized artform (compared to fiction) today is the fault of us the poetry community alone, we are not identifying, publishing, and aggressively promoting enough outstanding poets like Paul Guest, Eduardo Corral, Ali Stein, or Amanda Auchter. These people deserve to be known more, if they were, we would have more general, average readers reading poetry, buying poetry. Don't you see? People are sick of the tv, movies, video games, and being isolated from other human beings by technology. People want to love poetry and go to poetry readings with their friends, why don't we give them good poems and poets to love?! But I digress.
"A Nice Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Poems For Bill Knott?" would be a step toward remedying this present state of poetry. Set the example with this anthology Paul and Josh, show judiciousness and the innovation in poetry with this anthology, just as Bill Knott has attempted his whole life to do (sometimes successfully, sometimes not so successfully, but he always tried and cared!), and publish our best new or little-known poets. If they are your friends, great! If you don't know them, great! Just as long as those poems and poets are the most fiercely artistically ambitious. Another idea: approach Knott about this project, he may be interested in lending a hand; he seems to love poetry to death.
I don't mean to project such responsibility upon people I do not know, or even set an agenda for what is your anthology idea, so my comment here you can just take it or leave it as you like, but nowadays I observe a trend of too many poets far too concerned with seeing their name and poem in print, and it hurts me badly as both a poet and reader to see this, because this is done to the detriment and slow destruction of poetry, which is one of the most valuable and sublime artforms human beings ever created to understand the cosmos/world and their distinctly absurd situation in it. Poetry does not deserve this.
HD
I'm in.
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