regarding : "I am partnered with a Poet. (He just handed me that passage, btw...) With over 200,000 books in the house (!!!), I can't move from room to room without tripping over Poetry in one form or another. >From the early Greeks to the most contemporary writers, he's read it all. I know exactly what HE would say if I asked him if Joni were a poet. I would get that same look I get when he wanders by the tv set when I'm watching Star Trek, and they characters are speaking space speak: "Captain, the triambic radiation is interfering with the targetting scanners..." Actually, he didn't effort a grunt when I posed the question to him."
I would trust his informed judgement." I too am "partnered with a poet" whatever the hell that means. He doesn't own quite 200,000 books mind you, but then neither did Proust. He's had to sit through a lot of Joni over the years and I've had to sit through more than my share of Marcus Aurelius. These are luxury compromises one makes over breakfast in love...these are not primary concerns in a refugee camp. I've always thought of Joni as an excellent pedestrian poet, that is pedestrian in the best sense. Her words run through people's heads as they walk along. They don't feel so alone. It's not the kind of thing I'd put in a mission statement for a grant proposal but in my heart of hearts I believe it to be one of the finer goals of art. I'm a painter and a writer. I've found that most people call what they like "art". Few have the generosity of spirit to recognise a lack in them selves when they fail to be moved by what is generally thought of as a "great work". Subjectivity is rampant, dear. But I'm not prepared to trust your room mate's informed judgement about what qualifies as a work of art any more than I'd trust my own artist in residence in the matter. for Chrissakes. I blame Ashara.... r. green visit our poetic if pedestrian website at: http://www3.sympatico.ca/greenstudio/index.html
