65. poetry is for the middle class, as a little hobby on the side
going to the footy, to see parramatta play once a week, with the train driver mum was having an affair with from across the street, & eating sugar-coated peanuts on the cumberland oval hill, was okay, but if i wanted an education in literature, forget it, i was said to be, 'right up myself', dale said, 'she's down in melbourne doin' that arty shit', & they were right, poetry is for the middle class, as a little hobby on the side, something to be entertained with, for those with cashflow who are occasionally inspired, that's why they don't have to pay us, because it was only meant as refreshment, a light amusement or for leisurely recreation, unlike other writers, there is no such thing as a professional poet, we are simply delicately inspired creatures, it is accepted that we are paid strictly after death, as a favour to us, this gesture to aid in providing more inspiration for the poverty-based lives that we are meant to lead, & to think how computer technology & a roof over my head has allowed me to write five times faster than living out of the back of a car with an old typewriter, poetry, like all art under this present system, has everything to do with class & money, & little to do with anything else, the hollywood movie is not my story, nor is theatre, the opera, the ballet or the gallery |
