Poets Through the Looking Glass
In the long run, the only genuine honor for a poet is readership born of love. Such readership does not always happen in the poet’s lifetime (see Blake, Whitman, Dickinson) — but when it does it continues for generations, even centuries. As one thumbs through issue after issue of Poets & Writers Magazine, each announcing yet another crop of poetry book winners, it’s difficult not to feel that one is watching the caucus race in Alice in Wonderland where, as the Dodo explains, “Everybody wins, and all must have prizes.”
Alice can hardly keep from laughing when the solemn-faced Dodo presents her with an “elegant thimble” (taken from her own pocket) as all the animals cheer:
Alice thought the whole thing very
absurd, but they all looked
so grave that she did not dare to laugh;
and as she could not think
of anything to say, she simply bowed,
and took the thimble,
looking as solemn as she could.
Book awards may look impressive on a poet’s resume, cover letter, grant proposal, or workshop-leader bio, but readers do not fall in love with poems because they win prizes, and accreditation is a poor substitute for readerly love. What we need now more than any time in the past is not fifty or a hundred thousand “distinguished prize-winners” (each brandishing his or her thimble) — but a few good books. As more and more publishers and poets drink not from the Pierian Spring but from an intoxicating bottle labeled “Poetry Book Contests” their failure to offer readers poetry that matters becomes more obvious each year.
Shall we continue to curtsey like Alice? Or dare to laugh?
~David Alpaugh
David Alpaugh is the author of two poetry collections: Counterpoint (winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize from Story Line Press, 1994) and Heavy Lifting (Alehouse Press, 2007). His article, “The Professionalization of Poetry,” was serialized by Poets & Writers Magazine in 2003, drawing over 200 letter and emails and wide discussion on the Internet. Blues Cruzio Cafe has produced an animated video reading of his poem Electronic Epitaph and Poetry.LA has a filmed excerpt of his 2008 reading at Moonday, both available on YouTube.
David has very kindly granted us one of the poems from Heavy Lifting for our library:
