TRUE AESTHETIC INTEGRITY

Barry Schwabsky (whose Meritage Press Books should be on your bookshelf) writes clearly on the "Art World" HERE (link viz Anny). There's much content, but let me focus on this excerpt:

To detach oneself from the vagaries of the taste of one's milieu is a considerable accomplishment. But to detach oneself from one's own taste is much rarer. To know one's taste and follow it represents integrity, but to know the limitations of one's taste and aspire to circumvent it is a more refined form of integrity...

Barry here is talking about art collectors. But this statement really can be applied to the poetry world. Nuff said about that since Moi ain't feeling didactic this mawnin'.

(Barry's article also is a good explanation for why I ceased being an "art collector" at about the time much collecting focus started occuring through the Art Fair. I remain, of course, an Art Lover.)