Far away from home, far from where I want to be, but getting closer every day.
Aug 11
puffalump:
[from the August 9 issue of The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Parade Magazine, PersonalityParade section:]
Q: Why are my tax dollars going to pay a poet laureate when nobody reads poetry?
Jeff Kawabata, Omaha, Neb.
A: “It is difficult/to get the news from poems/yet men die miserably every day/for lack/of wha is found there,” wrote the great American poet William Carlos Williams. (We hope you’ll look him up!) While it’s true that not many people read poetry, they’d probably get a lot out of it if they gave it a try. The current U.S. Poet Laureate, Californian Kay Ryan, earns all of $35,000. But fret not: Her stipend is funded from a private endowment, not tax revenues.
