Re: motionless

Hi Scottie:

You ask:

"Does America have the equivalent of our poet laureate?"

We do, indeed. The current one's name is Billy Collins. Others have
included Robert Penn Warren and Richard Wilbur. I don't know much about
Collin's work, but I do know that he surprised the White House not long ago.
Both he and his work, from what I can tell, are usually introspective and
non-political. But after the Laura Bush conference fiasco (where she tried
to arrange a poetry conference, invited many of our leading poets, and then
told them to please not mention the war or read anything that might sound
like it was about the war -- they all eventually refused, of course, and a
small scandal developed among the community, with e-mails and petitions
everywhere, I got several of them myself), Collins came out and made a public
statement, not only criticizing the administration of the conference but
stating his position against the war as well. I'm sure there are wire
reports about it all online.

Jus thought you might want to know that we've got much the same situation
here that they have over there.

All the best,

--John

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Received on Fri Apr 4 07:12:24 2003