My blog has moved!

You should be automatically redirected to the new home page in 60 seconds. If not, please visit
http://gerrycanavan.com
and be sure to update your bookmarks. Sorry about the inconvenience.

Monday, September 29, 2008

In other bailout news, the long-awaited poetry bailout will 'restore the confidence of readers.'

Let there be no mistake: the fundamentals of our poetry are sound. The problem is not poetry but poems. The crisis has been precipitated by the escalation of poetry debt—poems that circulate in the market at an economic loss due to their difficulty, incompetence, or irrelevance.

Illiquid poetry assets are choking off the flow of imagination that is so vital to our literature. When the literary system works as it should, poetry and poetry assets flow to and from readers and writers to create a productive part of the cultural field. As toxic poetry assets block the system, the poisoning of literary markets has the potential to damage our cultural institutions irreparably.