Shanna comments on attention and value.

To return to value (because that's really something): value is most certainly personal & intimate. It becomes insitutional only by bringing enough individuals around to its side. "You" & "I" value some things alike & some things different. Also, I may not value what you value, but I feel an imperative to value that you do. I'm just like that: interested in you. Possibly even nosy.

Indeed we share an imperative to value -- call it habitus or human nature, either name's ok with me. (By the way, I'm interested in Shanna's splitting value into private judgments and public statements, the behind-the-scenes drama that gives blogging depth, n'escafe?)

Right now I'm interested in the utopian possibility that poetry might clear its house of the noise of marketing. This seemed to be something like the crux of the Ange Mlinko essay I linked to yesterday and which is gone missing. (What's up with the Hundred Million Dollar site, anyway? First the Lorna Dee Cervantes technical difficulties...)

I recognize that this sudden quietude is extremely unlikely, and that it would seem to run directly opposite to the poetry-conveyance current of the times not to even mention my ongoing efforts with THE MILLION POEMS SHOW SEASON THREE PREMIER OCTOBER 11 BOB HOLMAN GUEST MEGABEAK MUSICAL GUEST WITH FRANKLIN BRUNO AS THE HOUSE BAND LIVE AT THE BOWERY POETRY CLUB 6:30 FREE SO BUY LOTS OF DRINKS.

Seriously, though. As Kenneth used to say, the reason good poetry is never making a comeback is that it never goes away.

Aw hell.