When it comes to public discourse on poetry, the poems themselves need to rule, not the poets. This is often hard when the pinnacle of literary achievement is a book prize, which is often less about promoting a piece of writing and more commonly about promoting the narrative around a writer's career. Celebrating writing is healthy. Lionizing writers is generally absurd. Most of the writers I know who strive for praise are either deeply damaged by it or at best coping in spite of it...
I had to ask the question: what is the point of this thing we do? What is the point of writing?
If the only answer I could come up with revolved around a dream to give an acceptance speech at some podium then I would have quit writing. But there is a lot we can do as writers. Writing is a skill that I don't want to take for granted or waste on a projection of myself. If I can see a purpose to a piece of writing, whether it is political or to express love for my family, or to make people laugh, then I keep it. If the intent behind a poem is to show someone how well I can write, how smart I am, or how muscular my language can be, then I hit delete.
- Brad Cran, in interview with Brian Kaufman in the latest issue (#64) of SubTerrain.
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