Poetry and Pound and Fascism and Fiction

Recently in a poetry essay group I am in we talked about Bernstein's essay on Pound and the Poetry of Today and one thing that I brought up was the fact that Pound's Right Wing Avant Gardeism was not as odd as everyone thinks today. It is interesting that so many fine poets were moved my totalitarianism from the left and the right. A friend of mine asserts that Poets are the Catholics of the literature world and that Fiction writers are the protestants because of the fact that poets care so much about ceremony and form. That poets are used to forming around gurus or Abbots and that we as poets do not like sell outs. Where as Fiction writers are like storefront church founders they do whatever it takes to sell books-- or get souls as the case may be.

I have spent allot of time this winter with some old poetic friends, re reading Maximus for example has been a joy. I am also reading peter gizzi's book, this is quite an opera found it very moving. Mark Tardi's new book really tore the scab off the wound of weakness and burns red hot. Jesse Seldis's magazine Antennai got one of his Silliman poems into Best American Poetry. Jesse is such a quiet force-- I wish he would write more I think he has allot to offer us poetically.

A group of we poor Chicago writers are going to readin Milwaukee at Woodland Pattern at their marathon reading, myself, Jesse Seldis, Mark Tardi, Kerri Sonnenberg, and Chuck Stebelton are reading at 1100 pm on the 31st. I cannot think of any group of poets I would rather read with than these people.