"Poetry Discussion: Canadian Poet Laureate Trashes Slams" | Login/Create an Account | 13 comments

Threshold -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 Nested Flat Thread Oldest First Newest First Highest Scores First

The comments are owned by the poster. We aren't responsible for their content.

Oh boy.

Declaring that a certain style or genre cannot be art is akin to criticising a movie you haven't seen because you don't like the lead actor.

Saying, slam poetry is not real poetry, is meaningless given the breadth of the slam.

A criticism of an individual piece would be valid, but the wholesale dismissal of a movement is about as meaningful as saying, "I hate country music."

And as for Mr. Bowering's opinion that "To treat poetry as performance is crude and extremely revolting,"--tell it to Shakespeare or Dylan Thomas.

If you follow the article that is at the bottom, you'll see that the guy was a study of the Beats.

Weren't the beats looked upon by 'academia' as producing stuff that wasn't 'real poetry' ? Didn't they say some of the same things about the beats that they're saying now about slam?

At best he's short sighted at worst he's a hypocrit.

• Re: Canadian Poet Laureate Trashes Slams by Anonymous on Thursday, November 16
  

Honestly?

I think he's kidding.

He could be kidding. I never even considered the fact that he could be... which I guess is a personal flaw I need to work on.

Honestly.

Anway, this whole slam vs. academia thing really is counter productive. It's like Iraq and North Korea spouting propaganda against each other while ignoring the U.S. Marines on thier shores.

Perhaps it's almost like that.

He wasn't joking...<br />
<br />
Poet laureate, spoken word poets clash <br />
2003-01-06 00:00:00.0 <br />
<br />
<br />
Trevor Hughes, The Arts Report <br />
<br />
<br />
George Bowering <br />
<br />
VANCOUVER - Canada's newly appointed poet laureate has started a war of words with a spoken word poet based in Vancouver.<br />
<br />
In a recent Globe and Mail article, poet laureate George Bowering denounced slam, or spoken word, poetry and poetry competitions as "revolting."<br />
<br />
Treating poetry as a competition is "crude and extremely revolting", Bowering told the Globe.<br />
<br />
Vancouver-based spoken word poet T. Paul Ste. Marie says he's angry, and has received dozens of e-mails from other frustrated slam poets.<br />
<br />
To Ste. Marie, who hosts and produces open mike sessions for spoken word artists, Bowering isn't following his job description.<br />
<br />
"Obviously this is shaking up his system," said Ste. Marie. "I mean, one of the roles and responsibilities of the parliamentary poet laureate is to sponsor poetry readings."<br />
<br />
Bowering says he fully appreciates poets who get up in front of a microphone. What he says he has a problem with are poets who use language to get what they want. <br />
<br />
A true classic poet, says Bowering, is humble before the word and respects language. He says a poet who uses poetry to win a competition for his or her own glory is missing the point.<br />
<br />
"[Poetry] as a servant of language rather than the other way around," said Bowering. "That's my main argument."<br />
<br />
But he says poets are at their best when they have different views, using arguments to provoke thought.<br />
<br />
For more arts news, listen to The Arts Report weekdays at 7:12 a.m., 8:12 a.m. and 5:55 p.m. on CBC Radio Two. <br />

I really don't see a difference between publishing and performing.

Published Jan 08, 2003 - 12:40 PM


FIERCE SECOND COUNTERATTACK POINTS TO NEPOTISM AND CENSORSHIP AMONG TISH POETS


It seems the level of nepotism among the Tish poets has reached a new low. Our investigative reporters have learned that the deck was stacked in favor of Roy Miki for the 2002 Governor General's Award of Canada. The award, which was handed out last November, purposesly timed so that Miki could take full advantage of the peak Christmas book-buying season, is sponsored by The Bank of Montreal. Miki "won" for his book, aptly titled "Surrender." There were three judges involved in determining that Roy Miki, widely known as the Canadian Poet Laureate George Bowering's "best friend," should get the $15,000 which goes along with this pre-eminent national literary award. The judges were: Miki's fellow Simon Fraser University faculty member and good friend, Daphne Marlatt; good friend and the publisher of Miki's chapbook "Market Rinse" (Disorientation Press), Nicole B. Markotic; and finally, none other than member of the good ol' poets club and the 2001 Governor General Award recipient for poetry, George Elliott Clarke. Reports suggest sales of Miki's chapbook have skyrocketed since his publisher chose Miki out of the 1439 entries to receive this prestigious award. Miki, who teaches "contemporary literature" at SFU in the same department as Award judge Marlatt, commented, "It's nice to see through these recent announcements that poetry coming out of the West Coast is being recognized." He also claimed he was totally caught off guard when a bunch of his friends gave him the Governor General's Award.

Meanwhile, an incident has been uncovered which suggests the George Bowering club has attempted to destroy other schools of poetry in the past. According to literary critic Andrew Bingham, the Canadian "literary past and present is a history of betrayal." In an article Bingham wrote online, he suggests that the Tish poets pretend that "there is no Canadian cultural identity," and he says he is witness that "anyone who raises vocal and serious questions about viewing Canada as a cultural non-entity is blacklisted." Bingham, who says the word Tish is appropriately an old hippie term for Shit, insists "those writers who uphold and have an obvious love for Canada are ignored or ridiculed." Bingham points out an incident which dates back to 1986, when a very popular Canadian political poet named Robin Mathews was hired as an "Exchange Professor" at Simon Fraser University. Mathews tried to teach his students to write about what they were "passionate" about, but this caused other professors and faculty members to protest. Because of Mathews' views on Canadian independence and the legitimacy of its culture, and his outspoken criticism of his largely U.S. influenced peers, he was basically put on trial by the Tish poets and booted out of SFU. After the incident, the Canadian Association of University Teachers determined that SFU had indeed "violated academic freedom." In light of this dark, oppressive history, it is no surprise then that the Tish poets presently seem to be bent on destroying the current Slam poetry movement, which stands in its way of dictating an "inhumane" ideology of poetry.

In other Canadian Crisis related news: Calling him George "Borrowing," an underground group of Toronto poets, who call themselves the P.L.F. (Poets Liberation Front), have called into question the legitimacy of George Bowering's newly obtained position as the Poet Laureate of Canada, and have accused him and his friends of nepotism. "Everyone knows Bowering has made his career off of robbing others of their ideas," Jean, a spokesperson for the P.L.F. says. "So, it should be of no surprise that he is calling attention to himself now, by stealing the media frenzy which belongs to the slam poets." The P.L.F. cites an incident which occurred in 1970, when Canada's coveted Governor General's Award was presented to George Bowering. "Most Canadians thought that a writer named Milton Acorn deserved that award," Jean says. "It was no coincidence that a professor at UBC named Warren Tallman (who was a U.S. citizen, not a Canadian) was on that very panel of three judges, and was the one most influential factor in the decision to give the Award to Bowering. The truth was, Bowering was Tallman's 'teacher's pet' and both of them were busy conspiring to form the Tish Group, a group that fought against an authentic Canadian form of poetics. These two traitors brought the U.S. beat poetry movement into Canada and claimed it as their own. They stole their movement from Ginsberg and passed it off as some new form of Canadian poetry." According to the P.L.F., outraged Canadian poets protested the questionable Award decision, and, in response to it, they created their own "People's Poet Award," presenting it to Milton Acorn at a private ceremony, which they held at a place called Grossman's Tavern in Toronto. "Now, 33 years later, as Bowering renews his attack on the Tavern Poets, we are supposed to accept it as another coincidence that, at the very moment Bowering is appointed Poet Laureate by his friends, his best friend, Roy Miki, suddenly receives the Governor General's Award himself. If anything is 'horseshit,' that is! They are using Bowering as a secret weapon to do whatever they want to."

The P.L.F. claims Tish nepotism has become rampant. "Canada is a huge country," Jean says, "but the League controls the entire literary community. The way they make it out, one would think poets don't exist outside the borders of Vancouver. For example, do you think Esta Spalding's dry, boring work would have gained any attention if she wasn't such good friends with Michael Ondaatje? Who do they think they're fooling? Let's see Esta Spalding get up in front of a microphone and win the approval of the people. Anyone can hide behind the walls of a university and enjoy pats on the back from friends. Let's see that talentless pawn win a Slam."

The P.L.F. also cites a recent survey made by the Canadian publication The Globe and Mail in which a poet named Leonard Cohen was overwhelmingly voted to be Canada's first Parliamentary Poet Laureate. Even though the poll was unofficial, and Mr. Cohen has moved to California, making him ineligible for the position, the P.L.F. insists "The Government can't dictate who our poetry leaders are. Everyone knows Leonard Cohen is the real poet laureate of Canada." Leonard Cohen's books of poetry have generated impassioned treatise on the man and his words, and Europeans have long heralded his work as brilliant and revolutionary. Others, however, have said Cohen's dark and gloomy mood would be inappropriate for a position such as poet laureate. "Better to have someone who is gloomy than someone with Turrets Syndrome," Jean responds. "Bowering is totally disturbed and irresponsible. I think The Calgary Herald had it right when they said 'Bowering writes the way an alcoholic drinks.' One of his first requests when he was appointed poet laureate was that he wanted to see 'poetry on wine bottles.' Others in the literary scene thought Bowering must have been drunk when he composed a pornographic exchange with his friends David Bromige and Maria Damon and posted it on message boards." Jean claims Bowering is also "corrupt with power. Another thing he tried to do after becoming poet laureate was to ban the Canadian National Anthem. Bowering claimed the anthem is 'grammatically incorrect.'"

Meanwhile, Letter eX has confirmed reports that a letter containing a very serious threat was sent to some members of The League Of Canadian Poets. The letter was written by an as of yet unidentified person, who somehow sent it to a Vancouver-based poetry e-mail list, a list which is said to include many of the Canadian Tish poets, possibly even George Bowering, the Poet Laureate of Canada. At least one letter analyst interprets the letter as a threat of arson, most probably directed toward Canada's Parliament Hill, made in a desperate response to Bowerin

( Comment truncated, read the rest )

I think George Bowering believes slam poetry is crap.

And that's okay.

Maybe it is crap. Maybe Bowering's poetry is crap.

Poets too are entitled to their opinions, even of others' poetry.

Why is everyone so atwitter?

And why, for god's sake, are some anonymous weiners spouting threats over the internet?

( Comment truncated, read the rest )

• Re: Canadian Poet Laureate Trashes Slams by John on Thursday, January 23
  

governmental poets speaking of any poet or poetry delivery in a negative fashion in public seems futile. i personally feel that "slam" is just a forum and the "style" each poet delivers can be called anything. I am the poet laureate for the universe. try to slam me youll get slammed. what i do agree with is the fact that most "slams" dont even have poets reading poems, they have poets performing satirical comedy about the trivial and obvious, more like reading their journal entries than describing the undescribed.

( Comment truncated, read the rest )

HELP ME CONTACT THE POETS LIBERATION FRONT
MY EMAIL IS DENDERAH@GMAIL.COM

ANYHELP WOULD BE GREAT - SCREW POET LAUREATE OR WHATEVER THE HELL THEY THINK THEY ARE, SCREW NEPOTISM FOR PRIZE WINNING, SCREW PPL WHO LOOK DOWN ON POETS FUNDING LIVING THROUGH CONTESTS, GET AS MUCH MONEY AS YOU CAN FOR YOUR POEMS THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO DO SO. HELP ME CONTACT THE PLF AND DETHRONE THE CURRENT POET LAUREATE

( Comment truncated, read the rest )

4Story Gold 4Story Gold
Aion Kinah Aion Kinah
Archeage Gold Archeage Gold
Archlord Gold Archlord Gold
Atlantica Gold Atlantica Gold
Blade Soul Gold Blade Soul Gold
Cabal Alz Cabal Alz
DC Universe Cash DC Universe Cash
DDO Platinum DDO Platinum
Dekaron Dil Dekaron Dil
Dofus Kamas Dofus Kamas
Dragon Nest Gold Dragon Nest Gold
Eden Eternal Gold Eden Eternal Gold
Everquest 2 Platinum Everquest 2 Platinum
Everquest Platinum Everquest Platinum
FFxi Gil FFxi Gil
FFxiv Gil FFxiv Gil
Firefall Gold Firefall Gold
Grand Fantasia Gold Grand Fantasia Gold
Guild Wars 2 Gold Guild Wars 2 Gold
Knight Online Gold Knight Online Gold
Last Chaos Gold Last Chaos Gold
Lotro Gold Lotro Gold
Maple Story Mesos Maple Story Mesos
Metin2 Yang Metin2 Yang
Nostale Gold Nostale Gold
Perfect World Gold Perfect World Gold
R2 Online Gold R2 Online Gold
Rappelz Rupees Rappelz Rupees
Rift Gold Rift Gold
Rift Platinum Rift Platinum
Runes of Magic Gold Runes of Magic Gold
Runescape Gold Runescape Gold
Rusty Hearts Gold Rusty Hearts Gold
Shaiya Gold Shaiya Gold
Silkroad Gold Silkroad Gold
Star Wars Galaxies Credits Star Wars Galaxies Credits
Swtor Credits Swtor Credits
Tera Gold Tera Gold
Tibia Gold Tibia Gold
Vindictus Gold Vindictus Gold
WOW MONEY WoW Money
WOW GOLD WoW Gold
Gamegold News Gamegold News

( Comment truncated, read the rest )