Poetry & the Recession

I retired just before the Great Recession steamrolled the national economy. Now I am back at work, self-employed, selling off some of my unneeded stuff on Amazon and eBay while also writing two books and several screenplays and waiting for producers to find enough money to shoot some of my optioned movie projects.

Almost nobody buys poetry, even in good times. In the midst of a recession, it is an even harder sell.

Yet millions of us write it and try to get it published and wish someone would pay us for it.

I actually made a few bucks from poetry a number of years ago. Rolling Stone paid me $10 each for a couple of poems when Joe Esterhaus was still their poetry editor. Equally long ago, the Denver Post paid me a few dollars for a couple of poems used as fillers.

There were a few other small sales, and sometimes, someone passed the hat when I did a reading in a bar or coffeehouse. The biggest take, I recall, was $6.

Over a period of 40-plus years, I would estimate that I have made about $300, at most, from writing poetry and selling copies of my poetry books. That averages out to about $7.50 a year, or maybe enough to buy a hamburger and eat my words.

On that note, I would like to announce that I still have available three autographed copies of my first poetry book, "Waiting for Water." Want one? You can use Paypal to send $1.25 plus $1.75 shipping and handling ($3.00 total) to si@sagecreekproductions.com.

If I sell all three and bring in $9, I'll consider this a banner year for poetry. And, once again, I'll probably buy a meal and eat my words.

Thanks!

-- Si Dunn

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Almost (Poem and Photographs)

Almost

(Near 92 Champs-Élysées, Paris)

Thomas Jefferson lived here

And slept here, it is rumored,

With a slave (not commemorated).

But wait, there’s more!

Corporal Robert Birlinger died here

Just two hours before Paris’ liberation.

The fireman turned soldier

Dared to cross

Avenue des Champs-Élysées

Leading a squad to fight

Blazes and German snipers.

Always a bad combination.

He almost made it.

Shot in the leg, he

Gave up too much blood

For France,

While those who could help him

Were pinned down.

Some critics of Birlinger's small plaque

Tell a less heroic story:

A tank shell simply

Blew him apart.

But this all avoids the essential question:
Just before Corporal Birlinger died here,

Had he read the plaque above

What later would be his,
And realized that

Thomas Jefferson always

Made it across the street?

                   -- Si Dunn



From the forthcoming book of poems and photographs by Si Dunn:
The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower
(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.)

The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower (poem and photograph)

The One-Trillionth
Picture of the Eiffel Tower

Yes, I took it.

This is it. Look

at it. What do

you mean “Give

or take a few

hundred billion”?

This is it. This one

image. I swear it:

The one-trillionth

picture. How do I

know? Because

all of my life, and

well before it,

I have been keeping

very, very, very

careful count.

                   -- Si Dunn







From the forthcoming book of poems and photographs by Si Dunn:
The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower
(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.)

Now at the Louvre (Poem and Photograph)

Now at the Louvre

What does art see

When it stares back at us,

Sculpting its own blindness

With framed eyes?

Are we the vision

Or merely the stone?

The murderous paintbrush

Or the reticent chisel?

What does art see

When we blink? When

We think we understand

Yet never listen

To the endless shapes

We incessantly create?

               -- Si Dunn

From the forthcoming book of poems and photographs by Si Dunn:
The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower
(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.)

Heading into Notre Dame (Poem and Photograph)

Heading into Notre Dame

Some days,

It's the best you can do.

Indeed, it's all you can do:

Grip your head

In your hands

And wonder

What the holy hell

Just happened?

                   -- Si Dunn

 
 

From the forthcoming book of poems and photographs by Si Dunn:

The One-Trillionth Picture of the Eiffel Tower

(Copyright 2010. All rights reserved.)

Poetry Book "Anchoring" Now Available from Lulu.com

Anchoring, my second book of poetry, is now available through Lulu.com. Anchoring is a collection of poems that previously appeared in a wide range of publications, such as Rolling Stone, the Texas Observer, the Denver Post and several literary magazines. My first book of poetry, Waiting for Water, is still available on Amazon.com.

-- Si Dunn

Burning Manuscripts: A Poem

BURNING MANUSCRIPTS
No words gather meaning
While they flame. No phoenix
Rises. Cold, the ashes collapse.

The poet smirks at his pyre:
A genre of smoke,
Published by the wind.

-- Si Dunn