Finding a Literary Community - (writing advice)

[@cassiecadome]

Very wise words. I'm living either in rural Quebec or Uruguay, and the isolation I feel as an English-speaking poet is overwhelming. Although I am fluent in all three languages, I really would love to connect with a few formal poets on an ongoing basis. Your friend in Tasmania was very helpful as i began to write my historical verse-tale! Sometimes I wish I lived in Newburyport! :-)

[@davidmason9919]

Well said, says the friend in Tasmania!

[@TheCyborgk]

I'm in Detroit, USA, I would be interested in connecting with writers from other places... This is something I'm interested in, generally, but especially now, since Covid has made making local connections especially difficult.

[@demetrie94]

This channel is helping me tarry through my dissertation on poetry. Thank you!

[@DanaGioiaPoet]

Even the best student needs extra spiritual energy to finish a dissertation. Good luck.

[@deaccssn2594]

I really appreciate these videos - thank you! You mention "meditation" a few times. I was wondering if you could expand a little on what you mean by that. Are you talking about a meditation practice like mindfulness? Or the general process of thinking about what you're writing? Apologies if you cover this somewhere else.

[@nickandmikec]

William Stafford, who was a friend of mine, and supportive of my work as a poet, once write: "Writing is a private act; publishing a public act." I don't belong to a community of poets anymore. Some poets can be difficult to be with. I don't hobnob. One poet once said to me at a publication party in Los Angeles: "I know why you're here. You're here to get your name out, to make your name known so that when you send your poems to editors they will have a face for that submission." I said in response, "Yes, that's why I'm here, and that's why you're here too." We're all in this together. For most poets, there are few monetary rewards. The most I've ever made publishing a poem was one hundred dollars ("America Magazine"), and little else here and there. One editor (at the Colorado Review) said in a letter accompanying the return of my poems, "We're not interested in your poems, but there is a greeting card company in Denver that may be interested in these." Strangely, the same magazine published a poem of mine in 1978 when it was called the "Colorado-North Review." At the "New Yorker" there is a person there called a "Poetry Coordinator" whose job, I think, is to make sure that anything she feels is lacking in quality, doesn't make it upstairs. One has to have a pretty thick skin to be a poet. My supporting community included poets Benjamin Saltman, William Stafford, and sundry others, almost all of them have died. One other, poet Jodi Johnson, lives nearby. We are correspondents. I don't mingle otherwise. I don't read my work in public. I don't care for poetry as performance art, if there is any real art to it. I find it distracting. Here is one of my poems recorded by British actor, Sally Day: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gJqam3WId8l-n68 Here is another poem of mine read by Michael Justice: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aYKzp6Smj9J8htU

[@harrybarber4391]

Excellent!

[@theresewalters1696]

Thank you for speaking on this important topic. Especially the group dynamics. Years ago I attended a songwriting group that was somewhat helpful. It provided a good cross-section of artists with various levels of expertise and genres. Everyone was able to perform a song which everyone else critiqued. The feedback was handwritten on small sheets of paper with preprinted categories to check off and room for comments. Unfortunately, groups like that have vanished over the years. Or, rather are more likely meeting in ways other than in person through technology. I have just revived an interest in writing again and appreciate your video.

[@DanaGioiaPoet]

Thank you. I hope the videos can be helpful.