Andrew Stiller wrote:
>>> This is not a life or death issue, like national defense, or public
>>> safety, or desegregation.
>>
>
> It is difficult
> to get the news from poems
> yet men die miserably every day
> for lack
> of what is found there.
> Hear me out
> for I too am concerned
> and every man
> who wants to die at peace in his bed
> besides.
>
> --William Carlos Williams
>
And William Carlos Williams wrote this poem with government support? I
don't think so -- survival of the arts is NOT the product of government
support, but rather the product of the arts themselves.
Williams wasn't published because the NEA thought he should be. He was
published because a publisher thought he should be.
He wrote the poems because he wanted to or felt the inner need to. That
they speak to the inner needs of others is a wonderful adjunct.
Poetry "slams" are quite alive and well -- poetry thrives today without
NEA support. The public is rediscovering poetry all on its own. This
particular art is speaking more and more to a public which had realized
how much it had missed.
I am not against the arts at all. I earn my living from participating
in the arts.
I also do so without governmental support.
How about you?
--
David H. Bailey
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