In Breughel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away/ Quite leisurely from the disaster..../ Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky
In W.H. Auden's poem "Musée des Beaux Arts," the poet explores a painting in which the everyday world grinds along, oblivious to a tiny splash in the lower right hand corner of the work that is the only evidence of a boy who'd flown too close to the sun.
It is easy to be oblivious; easier than flying; easier than poetry.
In bookstores, where shelf space and inventory turns are eternal subjects of heated debate, National Poetry Month reminds us just how challenging some inventory decisions can be. A comprehensive poetry section in a general-interest bookstore is a conscious and often costly statement. It is unlikely to earn its keep and must be subsidized by increased sales in other categories, but, thankfully, for many booksellers an extensive poetry selection is a necessity.
And Poetry Month is still a retail labor of love. Over the years, I've met Poetry Month evangelists and detractors. Even some poets I know have expressed mixed feelings about the concept, wondering why poetry has to be trotted out like an orphan up for adoption once a year.
At one end of the April celebration spectrum is the Academy of American Poets, which spearheaded the original concept almost three decades ago. At the other end are the cynics--represented here by a classic Onion article--and the vast number of people who just don't care.
Booksellers fall into place at various points along the spectrum, which prompts certain questions: Is promoting Poetry Month with events and displays a bookstore's option or duty? Does it take a devoted poetry reader on staff to drive creative, energetic participation? When, where and how often does passion top inventory turns, even if only for 30 days?
I'm not a poet, but I am a lifelong reader of poetry (and buyer of poetry collections, which is a truly endangered lit-species). I'm a writer, so I think about words all the time, but I'm also deeply intrigued by and engaged in the book trade, so I think about money, too.
It's complicated. I know many poets, and when our conversations turn to the book trade, a certain fatalistic refrain inevitably creeps in: "No money in poetry; never was, never will be," they will say, or: "I write poetry, therefore I teach."
I know, I know. It's not just about the money, whether you're a poet, a bookseller, a small press editor or any other toiler in the word fields. It is, however, a little bit about the money. For example, have you ever met anyone in the book world who didn't say, at some point, "I could have made more money doing (fill in the occupation), but I had to do this?"
John Berryman considered the bookish money dilemma in Henry's Fate:
Glistening, Henry freed himself from money
By making enough.
Not much, enough.
His bills in Hell will be easy to pay,
No laundry there,
No long-distance telephone.
And Charles Bukowski grumbled about it in "so you want to be a writer?":
if you're doing it for money or
fame,
don't do it.
Thankfully, many booksellers continue to celebrate Poetry Month with events, displays, readings and promotions. Bronx River Books, Scarsdale, N.Y., for example, posted on Facebook: "All month long, books of poetry and books about poems/poets are 10% off. Also, recite a poem from memory for a $5 gift certificate."
Búho bookstore, Brownsville, Tex., posted on Instagram: "Goodbye March, hello April! Now that we had our fun with our yearly April Fool's joke, we can now report with 100% honesty that Búho will be featuring books by renowned poets in observance of National Poetry Month! From timeless classics, to modern masterpieces, and from movers & shakers from all walks of life, there's definitely something here to inspire everyone through the creative use of the written word. Now that we are talking on the subject, everyone is especially encouraged to participate in this month's Noche Bohemia with an original poem, artwork, or song, or perhaps one of the selections from our center table that really resonates with you. Be moved by rhetoric & verse at its finest forms--only at Búho!"
Poetry may not be widely read, but it cannot be stopped because, one way or another, we readers and writers will always have our way with words.
"We put shoes on the imagination," Homero Aridjis writes in his poem, "Borders, Cages and Walls," which concludes:
We put bolts on the eyes,
locks on the hands,
limits to the lightning.
But life keeps its distance,
love to its word,
and poetry comes up where it can.
In This Craft of Verse: The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, 1967-1968, Jorge Luis Borges observes: "We go on to poetry; we go on to life. And life is, I am sure, made of poetry. Poetry is not alien--poetry is, as we shall see, lurking round the corner. It may spring on us at any moment."
And in "Failing and Flying," Jack Gilbert reminds us: "Everyone forgets that Icarus also flew/.... I believe Icarus was not failing as he fell,/ but just coming to the end of his triumph."
Maybe the wonder is that Poetry Month is still flying.