The Week In Books: Special Comment - Is National Poetry Month Effective?

Do you think this guy would care about whether or not he was featured by National Poetry Month?

There is a notion that in the United States books and readership are in general decline. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that literary reading is in decline. History, literary fiction, essays and poetry are all considered literary titles.

Poetry has a reputation of being in worse straits yet. This decline was apparently so noticeable that in 1996 the Academy of American Poets founded National Poetry Month in order to spread awareness and broaden readership. It is supposed to be an all-inclusive month of awareness but is often criticized as being mainstream or failing to successfully represent new voices.

One particularly humorous piece written against National Poetry Month was penned by the poet I reviewed on Monday's Front List / Back List post.

In Against National Poetry Month As Such poet, philosopher and professional academic Charles Bernstein takes to task what he characterizes as the naive and misguided efforts of the academy's honorific month of poetry. He points to problems with the holiday's ability to represent cutting-edge poetry as well as a tendency to support what he essentially conceives of as "pop" poetry. He's not entirely wrong. He's far from right though.

The bookstores, cafes and poetry venues that exist and support a diverse selection of poets and poetry do so year-round. They do not rely on awareness months to support their efforts. They stock good, and bad, poetry year round. Their showcases and open mics titillate or bore the hell out of audiences regardless of what week it is.

Over the past two weeks I decided to journey to four Philadelphia area bookstores, excluding my old stomping grounds at Wolfgang Books (I left it out as to avoid bias). Of the four stores three had National Poetry Month displays and only one had what I would call a substantial poetry section. Guess which one didn't have the National Poetry Month display?

You bet. The one with the biggest selection of poetry was Chester County Books of West Chester, PA and it did not have a NPM display, or if it did, it was very well hidden.

The two "big top" stores I went to had a decent end cap display that included new releases as well as a couple of standards. There was no Wallace Stevens on the end-cap in honor of the poem selected for the NPM poster, but hey, I don't ever expect such awareness from a big store. Stevens was in the section, moldering and collecting dust. Again, I don't expect otherwise at a suburban B&N. They haven't seen their feet in years.

Those end-caps though... What did they hide behind them? In the case of the Barnes & Noble I visited, there was a completely gutted poetry section hid behind the endcap and a fiction section. Four shelves were of books faced out and most were single titles. The selection of poetry was mainly kept to classics, both modern and truly classical, and would be most accurately described as meager. Maybe a couple hundred titles total in two shelving bays. It was grim. More grim still was the absence of small press or even new releases from decently large houses. Nothing.

That end-cap, which contained three anthologies and two new collections by notable poets, was the only effort the store was making to support its poetry section. I worked at this particular Barnes & Noble once upon a time and I fear that most of those titles leaning in the section were there on the day I left.

So what does any of this mean? It means that for eleven months out of the year you will have a hard time finding new poetry at a big top store. Is it based on economic considerations? Surely it is. A business like Barnes & Noble does not consider anything else. So while the cutting edge of poetry may yet go without sharpening every April, the more mainstream voices may yet find new audiences and that at least is something more than the other eleven months.

To criticize someone's attempt to improve a situation because such attempts call attention to the situation itself is ridiculous. In any case, I find any and all whining about a lack of support for the avant-garde kind of ridiculous. Did Beckett write Waiting For Godot in order to change the lives of the masses? And Dada was meant for the kitchen.

More to the point, it was on that big top National Poetry Month end-cap that I leafed through and decided to buy the Selected Poems of one Charles Bernstein.

Who, as appraised by his own essay would be one of the mainstream voices who help "dilute the art" itself. I'd argue that he is no such thing and that he is a fine poet and actually one that can evoke thought on both form and communicative function. That's just my opinion though.

National Poetry Month is about bookstores selling poetry and venues hosting a couple extra poetry themed events. After journeying to those four bookstores I had to wonder if anything had ever been different. I mean, City Lights is what it is and so is Borders.

Basically, and with no efficiency whatsoever, I'm telling you that April is a great month to try reading poetry if you find yourself not doing any such thing within the framework of the "rest of the year."

Read, damn it. Though that's a good motto for any other month.