SCALE POETICS

I like 'em big; I like 'em long. I'm ecstatic that Meritage Press will be the publisher of Allen Bramhall's DAYS POEM. About 800 manuscript pages -- which is to say, a book whose final page count could be in four figures. Forthcoming in 2007!

I appreciate the significance of scale. Scale is something that I feel is ignored or given short shrift by 99.9% of poetry publishing due to limited economic returns. So these long poems get printed in sections (though that's not necessarily bad -- just not part of the original intent) instead of being available at once. Sure, I might have to publish Allen's book in two volumes due to my printer's length constraints -- but they will be available concurrently. Because SCALE is part of his work and needs to be respected.

Really -- I feel poets don't pay enough attention to scale. Most contemporary poetry books tap out at the, what, 74-ish length? Is that really due to aesthetics or capitalism's objections to poetry -- e.g. no more than __ pages due to cost? (Matter of fact, one of the books Meritage Press will publish next year was first submitted in the about 80-page range. A great manuscript, but I thought the energy got truncated. I told the poet -- is there a longer version? He re-sent the book. It's a waaay better project, as a result!) This isn't intended to bash poetry publishers with limited funds, please, but really another call by Moi to suggest that poetry publishers use POD to challenge inherited constraints created by contest and economic limitations.

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Speaking of scale, I have gotten more interesting review copies for Galatea Resurrects. As I'm due to be offline in five days, email me now if you wish me to send a review copy out before I leave (tho I'll be back online Oct. 10, plenty of time for next issue's Nov. 5 deadline).