Verlede maand was die National Poetry Month in die VSA en Kanada. Uiteraard was dié maand gekenmerk deur ‘n verskeidenheid van aktiwiteite en gebeure. Één so aktiwiteit was die “Optimisms Project” wat deur Jacob McArthur Mooney, ‘n digter van Toronto, geïnisieer is. Hy het naamlik na ‘n uitspraak van ‘n mede-digter op Facebook, “This is the worst time and place to be a writer,” besluit om ‘n positiewe energie te ontketen deur 25 digters, wat almal nog jonger as 30 is, te vra om ‘n stuk te skryf oor hoekom hulle optimisties voel oor die toekoms van die digkuns.
Sy projek het hy soos volg gemotiveer: “Optimism, in this period of our national history, lies somewhere between goofy naïveté and revolutionary stubbornness in its relationship to the dollars and cents reality of what we may laughingly refer to as ‘the poetry industry.’ To be an optimist is to divorce yourself from the overarching trends that plague poetry, and to say you’ll do it anyway. But we shouldn’t turn away from these realities. These past twelve months have seen the end of cultural investment in literary journals, the decimation of arts funding in BC, and a weekly parade of more minor disappointments, insults, and squabbles. People have thrown in the towel. I can’t blame them for it, can you?”
Ja, liewe leser. Dít komende van Kanada, daardie groen droom van bevoorregtes.
Nietemin, die treffendste kommentaar, myns insiens, is die volgende een wat gelewer is deur Mathew Henderson: “I’m optimistic about the future of poetry because we are doomed to misunderstand each other and misrepresent ourselves. Our speech, and our conversations offer only diluted and tangled versions of the what seems so clear in our minds. Outside of acts of lust and violence and sacrifice, we fail to be honest in most things but in poetry there is, at the least, an effort to find some kind of genuine communication. The words on the page, and the white spaces between them, and everything that isn’t written down can make me hurt in so many different ways. Finally, I’m optimistic because when conversation fails, poetry is like skin on skin contact, and that will never be irrelevant.”
Die volledige berigte kan hier en hier op The Torontoist se webblad gelees word.
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Sedert gister is daar ‘n (optimistiese) essay deur Joan Hambidge oor Nuwe Stemme 4 geplaas. Ook Bernard Odendaal se resensie van NS4 en sy praatjie oor “Digkunsontwikkelinge die afgelope dekade” behoort in samehang met Hambidge se “Nuwe Stemme 4 is ‘n 4X4” gelees te word. Onder die bloggers is daar nuwe bydraes deur Hennie Meyer, Desmond Painter en Ilse van Staden.
Weereens, ‘n kruiwa vol lekker leesstof. Maak dus seker dat die bakstene wat jy in vandag se muur voeg, waterpas op mekaar neergelê word.
Mooi bly.
LE