Odds and Ends Essays, Blogs, Internet Discussions, Interviews and Miscellany

the approach of the literary theorist Roman Jakobson was more reasonable, in that Jakobson saw poetry as marked
by specific functions in language rather than by an arbitrary redesignation by the academy of general texts. I agreed
with the latter.
In light of this, it seems to me that given that there is no significant difference between the work of the Art &
Language group and that of conceptual poetry, for the work of the latter to be designated as poetry whilst that of the
former is not, seems a peculiarly inconsistent and whimsical act on the part of the academy. It seems to me, that
neither the Art & Language group nor conceptual poetry can accurately be described as producing works of poetry,
given that they are both operating from within a conceptual art aesthetic and theoretical stance.
Michelle Greenblatt RIP
21 October 2015
Just heard that Michelle Greenblatt, a poet and editor friend, died last Monday. She was only in her early thirties. I
hadn’t had contact with her for some months, and assumed that this was due to her fibromyalgia, which she suffered
from terribly. I’m very shocked and saddened. My thoughts are with her husband and family. Rest in peace, Heavenly.
She was poetry editor and music editor for the website Unlikely Stories:
http://www.unlikelystories.org/biogreenblatt.shtml
Here are some of her poems at that site:
http://www.unlikelystories.org/12/greenblatt0812.shtml
Here is an ebook of her collaborative poems with Vernon Frazer I published in 2011:
http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/DARK%20HOPE.pdf
The Monopolisation of Avant-garde Poetry
29 March 2016
Here is an article by Tim Allen called ‘The Kiss of Life? The Kiss of Death? Some Thoughts on Linguistically Innovative
Poetry and the Academy’:
http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Allen%20essay.htm
Tim wrote it in connection to a feature at The Argotist Online concerning the relationship between academia and
avant-garde poetry. The feature is several years old, and was an attempt to get a discussion going about what
appears to be an increasing tendency within the English departments of some academic institutions in the US and the
UK to monopolise the practice, discourse, dissemination and publication of avant-garde poetry, thus creating a sort
of “gold standard” by which avant-garde poetry is to be measured, validated and approved as being “worthy” of
academic interest.
I thought the best way to start this discussion was to do a feature about it for The Argotist Online, consisting of
articles by US and UK academics responding to an article by Jake Berry that was critical of academic encroachment
into the sphere of avant-garde poetry. The feature can be found here:
http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/The%20Academisation%20of%20Avant-Garde%20Poetry.htm
My original hope for the feature was to get responses to Berry’s article from academics closely involved in this
monopolisation process. To that end, I approached many academics, both in the US and the UK, who were involved,
to a greater of lesser extent, in this process. Few replied to me, and the majority of those that did, refused to take part
in the feature. One or two did initially agree to take part but later changed their minds, for such reasons as having
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