Dear
Editor:
this is just your interpretation of what american poetry is/i
have known so many true poets who thrive on expressing what their
lives are about/now of course there are needs for your "pale-male-stale-yale-high
page silence" but those walls are surely crumbling around
you/ i've heard 10,000 poets read in the last ten years/read thousands
of times/sat on panels and tv shows with the likes of paul beatty/amiri
baraka/ginsberg/maggie estep/dana bryant/sapphire/willie perdomo/99/edwin
torres/dael orlander-smith/miquel algarin/saul williams and so
may more poets who you fail to even acknowledge exist/i have done
poetry/literacy workshops in prisons and "urban terrorist
neighborhood" schools all over this country/i've written
an award winning broadway musical-"Bring In Da Noise/Bring
In Da Funk" and have been nominated for Tony's and Grammy's-made
five spoken word cd's started my own label/been on mtv-arsenio-john
stewart-charlie rose etc/and know so many others who you refuse
to recognize out there fighting the good fight against voicelessness/
so please don't insult me with your eady's and dove's and your
favorite poem contests and white bread poet laureates and silly
sonnets of birds and plains and trains/i don't want to sit at
the table to have a nine course meal with you/but how about inviting
us 'ta lunch sometime/remember this: more people saw us on mtv's
spoken word unplugged on one night than have purchased all of
the books but robert pinsky-who-by the way-i've heard read ten
times/it amazes me how he speaks about the importance of saying
the poem/how the musicalty of poetry is really it's most dynamic
aspect/then i listen to him and realize, "this idiot is tone
deaf..."
reg e. gaines
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