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1 March, 2003
I was annoyed with the fact that people describe
poetry as important when they review books. —Cralan
Kelder, at January's The Open Stanza
• the First Letter from Meg
• February's The Open Stanza a HIT!
• Versal Returns
• Newsletter Gets a Facelift (note to Hotmail
users!)
• March Event Picks
LETTER FROM MEG
I’m in the throes of
a debate with Charles Weatherford, the founding poet of poetsforthewar.org
— and not so much about his politics as about his poetry,
or the poetry which he collects on his site. I wrote him because,
whatever its political stance, I was struck by the lack of poetry
in the poetry there, by the absence in it of questioning (re: Rilke’s
Letters to a Young Poet), by its limited vocabulary. He
came back to me rather aggravated, as I would be if someone jumped
on the wordsinhere site and labeled it all worthless —
but his response attempted to invalidate my voice (and therefore
my critique) in the same way that the poetry of poetsforthewar.org
uses well-tried clichés to overshout the voice of its opposing
side. According to Weatherford, I am too academic, too ignorant,
and too European, and whatever audience I try to reach with my words
is limited to the elite snobs of modern poetry.
Weatherford’s
audience, however, is America. He writes for and to the
American people who detest, as he puts it, the poets and intellectuals
who insult them (ie, poetsagainstthewar.org).
The American people, Weatherford claims, need plain words
for plain ears. They don’t understand the poet’s poem
and never will, so it’s up to him, and his site, to bring
poetry back to them.
A noble aim. He’d be
surprised that at its crux I agree with him. Much of U.S. poetry,
however good, is written now in the clean, factory process of the
MFA degree. The resolute MFAer carries The Wasteland and
Steven’s Collected Works around like bibles. Much
of what gets written out of this reads the same and, if you go to
one of the Faculty readings, it all sounds the same too. It’s
a double-edge for a poet growing up in America: finally, you have
a place, a guarantee (for a few years after university, at least)
that you’ll get paid for what you love. But can we actually
become poets the way we become doctors and mechanics? Is our future
success determined by the gravity of our resumes?
Weatherford claims that the
simplicity of his poetry is a conscious choice to reach the real
dirt-worn folks of America. He also claims that the political
issues which poetsforthewar.org
addresses are simple questions with simple answers, and therefore
any accompanying poetry would be — if form and content are
truly one — simple too. It is here that I must amend my critique
of his poetry and of his site. It wasn’t his poetry I was
really struck by. It was, indeed, his politics. Regardless of which
side you’re on, is our world really so black and white? Can
our responses be so uncomplicated? I’m just as hesitant with
(and wary of) the overt dove-flying world peace rhetoric as I am
with the ‘let’s bomb Saddam’ internal rhyme. There
is no question in the poetry of poetsforthewar.org,
and that’s what scares me.
I’d like to think poets
are the most capable archeologists of our modern rhetoric, the ones
best able to read and write between the lines. There has always
been a social and cultural responsibility which has followed the
history of poetry — a responsibility not entirely unfounded
(though perhaps too often buried under Academia for us to recognize
its social merit). But that is just the point. I am terrified that
poetry is as ineffective read as it is unwritten, that our world
is so inundated by questions that we’ve retreated to the simple
answers, and those who do question are censored by their own, uneasy
rhetoric. Yes, I’m terrified that Weatherford is right, that
the people of the United States really do believe in this modern
day’s simplicity.
What do you think of the role of poetry
in society? Jump on our discussion
board, let us know.
NEWS
Every month we all hyperventilate that
something big, ugly and disastrously bad is going to happen on the
Friday of wordsinhere's performance night. But it doesn't
and it won't happen (knock on wood), because The Open Stanza
has too many good ingredients to end up making a bad cake. Every
month I walk into Volta and appreciate all over again how good a
vibe it has. It's like the hang out room I have always wanted but
with a better sound system than I could ever afford. A sound system
that DJ Iron Melon funks the life out of in the name of boogie.
Last week being no exception.
What was exceptional was the quality of
the work and people who took the stage. Aside from me, three other
guest poets ground it out. Jane, Lennie and Eric: again, thank you.
Cimarra
— you Latin lovers of music — the rhythm you gave the
Stanza was beatalicous.
(I can't stop thanking people.)
Possibly my favorite "ingredient"
that makes The Open Stanza such a sweet thing to swallow
is the people who come out for a good time for themselves and end
up having a good time with everyone else. The Open Stanza
is breaking up those boundaries that define the usual poetry evening.
Bringing back the voices and the involvement of everyone who loves
words, not just those who play with them.
Click
here to visit our picture and performer gallery of February's Stanza!
If you're particularly discerning, you might
have noticed a few changes in this month's wordsinhere newsletter.
We got bored with the old ho-hum and thought we'd try to make it
a little more, well, interesting.
Also, because the Netherlands seems to have
taken a sudden interest in poetry events, we'll no longer list the
ENTIRE monthly calendar in the newsletter. It's frankly become too
long, and that's not very nice for Inboxes which have limited space.
So we'll list events we find particularly cool AND events that you
organizers out there specifically contact
us about. Of course, our website will continue to host the
full month's listing.
Feel free to let us know what you think
of the newsletter by adding your words to our discussion
board.
Hotmail users: You probably notice
nothing because — we have only just discovered — Hotmail
does not download any of the images which go with this newsletter,
nor does it pay attention to the HTML code. We are working to remedy
this and have contacted the folks at Hotmail. Until then, please
trust us: it looks much nicer than what you see.
CALLS
FOR WRITERS
With Spring in the air, it's time again
to think about bubbles and Shakespeare. Versal's going back
to the drawing board for its second issue! Keep your eyes open for
newsletter announcements of submission calls and check back at the
site in about a week for details on what we want and how we want
it.
And, it's not too late to purchase the historic
(historic?) first issue. Check out the preview
of Versal's first edition online AND, if you haven't
bought one already, you can now purchase Versal in a growing
number of shops in Amsterdam, such as La Luna in De Pijp or Demodakos
and Boekie
Woekie in the Jordaan. We still have our old-school
ordering process of course and you can always buy a copy at
The Open Stanza.
The Open Stanza is always on the
lookout for writers who perform their work with risk, who give their
writings a sound well-deserved, who take their words from print
to stage without something getting lost in the transfer.
Send samples of your writing (poetry, prose,
whatever) to openstanza@wordsinhere.com
or by post, Van Hogendorpstraat 123-I, 1051 BL Amsterdam. Upcoming
dates of The Open Stanza: March 21, April 25, May 23, June
20.
MARCH EVENTS WE'RE GOING TO ATTEND
Saturday 8 March, 8:30pm
Paradiso, Amsterdam
Performances and open-mic for poets, lyricists,
and wordsmiths. Includes Arjan Witte (NL), Zoneya (NL), Sharrif
Simmons (USA), De Klopdokter and DJ Fader (NL), Taneka Watts (USA),
and DJ Dirk Diggler. Entrance, €6.50.
Friday 14 March, 8:15pm
Restaurant Kip, Rotterdam
Nur Literatur is a new stage for literature
and nothing but literature. If the work is good, then it has a place
at Nur Literatur. With Yusef el Halal, Tjitske Jansen, Ramsey Nasr,
Steven Verhelst, Hensley Winterstroom, Menno Wigman, and Joost Zwagerman.
Entrance, €5.
Friday 21 March, 8pm (doors open)
Volta, Amsterdam
The Open Stanza continues! Monthly, living
poetry on stage. Entrance €5. Volta is located at Houtmankade
336, near the Westerpark. Check The Open Stanza pages for
more information
as March's evening progresses. Wanna perform? Get
in touch with us.
Wednesday 26 March, 8pm
unannounced, Amsterdam
The
John Adams Institute, in co-operation with Prometheus Publishing
House, is proud to present Gary Shteyngart, the author of The
Russian Debutante's Handbook (published by Riverhead Books),
translated into Dutch under the title Handbook voor de Russische
Debutante. Herman Stevens, novelist and literary critic for
HP De Tijd, will introduce Gary Shteyngart and interview him following
his reading. For more information on the lecture, please contact
Marike Paauw at the John Adams Institute: 020-6247280.
For the full list of March Events and for a listing
of regular shows, click
here.
aBOUT THIS LIST AND ADDRESS REMOVAL
This list provides news and information
about the wordsinhere community and its projects, as well
as a listing of this month's choice events in and around the Netherlands.
How do you get an event on the newsletter AND on the site? Email
it to us: calendar@wordsinhere.com.
Please feel free to distribute this e-mail
to those who you believe would be interested. Thank you very much
for your help and support.
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Copyright © wordsinhere 2002. No part
may be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the specific written
permission of wordsinhere first hand and obtained. wordsinhere is
a registered association through the Kamer van Koophandel, Netherlands.
Number 34181684.
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