In this country the poet has always had to fight for his survival. He lives in a middle-class milieu whose values of money-getting, respectability, and success are hostile to the kind of integrity and authenticity that is at the core of his endeavour. His need to probe himself makes him an easy victim for those who have more practical things to do--to hold down a job, amass a fortune, or to get married and raise children. His concern is to change the world; at any rate, to bear witness that another besides the heartless, stupid, and soul destroying one men have created is possible. Irving Layton
Posted by caroline at January 6, 2006 7:38 PMHe whom listen to advice cannot call himself a poet at all, for the profession dictates removal of all recognition of the perception of society-
Statistic- 96% of poets have been diagnosed with some kind of mental disorder-
CRACK- Just DO It!!!!!!
And, just to re-iterate, DEATH TO THE MIDDLE CLASS MOTHER
Posted by: jaxon at January 6, 2006 8:20 PMyou're right--it's difficult to listen to advice WHEN YOU'RE ALREADY DEAD. oh, so dark.
Posted by: caroline at January 7, 2006 9:46 AMBut what about the middle-class father? And the middle-class paperboy? What about the middle-class woman down the street? What did the middle-class mother ever do to you to deserve death?
Don't we all deserve death?
Hell, what about the middle class? If there was no middle class, there would only be the "lower class" [sic] and the "upper class" - the haves and the have-nots. Is that any better a situation? The haves are still the ones with the opportunities to explore things. The have-nots are still just trying to get by. Aren't the middle class just people, who want to have nice lives - sure, they may associate that with having nice things, but one day wealth will not exist et cetera et cetera.
Poets need to eat, drink, have a place to sleep, and always have luminaries (Atwood, Ginsberg, Kerouac, Blake, Plath, et cetera) to which they aspire - they still value money-getting & success even if they don't measure success in a given way (we all want to improve our craft).
Posted by: ben at January 7, 2006 9:56 AMsigh.
Posted by: caroline at January 10, 2006 2:20 AM