38. Does poetry matter?

“Dogs are so tricky!” Does poetry matter?

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Stefan Mesch fragt – Lyrikzeitung antwortet

01_I don’t know any people who read poetry… that aren’t poets themselves.

….. We do. Well… some at least.

02_Have you ever spent money on a poetry collection?

….. Yes we have… weekly, in some years daily

03_Did you ever copy, photograph or forward a poem? They’re easy to pirate / collect / archive / spread around. Why aren’t we doing that – all the time?

….. I do this every day, day and night. Dann sind wir schon zwei!

04_Why aren’t there poems in Happy Meals? On street corners? In every issue of Der Spiegel? Poetry doesn’t take much space: Why isn’t it more present in public life?

….. Ask Der Spiegel. (When Benn read Spiegel many papers still did print poems)

05_What’s the use of studying poems in school?

….. You’ll know later… if you happened to have had a good teacher, or some good friends.

06_What’s the use of learning poems by heart?

….. If you really learned them by heart, you will be rewarded later.

08_Would you rather meet someone who wrote poems – or someone who read them? Would you rather be known as a poet… or as a reader of poems?

….. Some poets, yes. And some readers too. The others of both kinds, rather not. – If you read this, you read a reader.

16_Name three famous poets… who are still alive.

….. Famous with me? or with Spiegel readers?

17_Name one famous poet still alive… who is famous for his or her poetry: no novelists or playwrights or Bob Dylans who publish poetry on the side!

….. Adonis. Friederike Mayröcker. Elke Erb. (At least one of them equally with readers and some nonreaders).

Jetzt zwei Gegenfragen: Why do people enjoy dissing poets? And why do poets enjoy dissing poetry… and poets?

Hier kann man das ganze lesen (sehr empfohlen).