Quote:
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You couldn't LIVE on this but it's nice, don't you think.
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I think it's
very nice. Man does not live by bread alone, but getting a little bread for your poetry is nice as eating
hot cross buns, one a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns. With lots of drippy butter.
Except for prize money, I have never had monetary rewards from the US, but over the years I have been paid from England, Canada, Sweden and (I think) Finland. In the US it seems to be the policy that one person wins a jackpot, and the rest get
nada. Whereas in countries (read European/Canadian) where art is (I think) viewed as one of the basic rights of citizenship, rewards are spread a little more evenly.
Our pendulum is swinging again though, and it will get worse before it gets better.
But I am always reading that in the US, every college has a Poet-in-Residence and every self-respecting church and hospital, not to mention town and state, seems to have its very own Poet Laureate. I've often wondered what their duties are.
Do they look up suitable secular quotes for the minister's sermon?
Do they read to hospital patients comforting verses like "He is not Dead" - James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) American poet, staff of Indianapolis Journal, called
‘poet laureate of democracy’ according to Google. There ought to be some money connected to that honorable title, doncha think, John?
(And congrats for all the bread delivered to your door.)