THE MONEY MACHINE & POETRY...OR NOT

Just read Inside the Money Machine by Minnie Bruce Pratt (Carolina Wren Press, Durham, NC, 2011). It's like a poetry version of what Barbara Ehrenreich explored in her NICKEL AND DIMED and BAIT & SWITCHED books on the working class. One of the depressing reminders I take away from Pratt's book is how the typical price of a poetry book -- $15? $16? -- is really a hardship for many people.

That reminder, though, is another reason why I continue to be so impressed by a poet I know who dedicates 10% of hir total income a year to purchasing poetry books. I--who plan to read every poem every written--don't even do that.

But I try, and here's my latest BOUGHT POETRY list:

FIELD WORK -- NOTES, SONGS, POEMS 1997-2010 by David Hadbawnik

SO LATE, SO SOON: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS by Carol Moldaw

CULTURE OF ONE by Alice Notley

FABULAE by Joy Katz

GRAVE RADIANCE: NEW AND SELECTED POEMS 1990-2010 by Elizabeth Alexander

UNPROTECTED TEXTS by Tom Beckett

SILK EGG: COLLECTED NOVELS (2009-2009) by Eileen R. Tabios (As this blog is about Moi, I non-apologetically suggest you buy it, too! GO HERE for the ordering links through various venues)