Did you know that Washington state has a poet laureate? That’s outrageous! In this economy? What are they thinking? This is bullshit! The commenters on this blog, like Laura:
While I fully believe it is essential to fund “the arts” in schools, I think we need to put our priorities in order. Our teachers are losing there jobs, as are their aides. Before we pay a gentleman to read a poem we should first make sure we fund our teachers who are perfectly capable of reading poetry.
and Alvin:
I believe Christine has turned into a nut. What on earth does Wa. State need with a Poet. $20,000 would do well elsewhere. This is ridiculous.
Agree with me. But more than that, this Americans for Tax Reform blog is more outraged than anybody on the planet over this, as you can tell by the title of the post, “Rhyme over Reason Flushes Taxpayer Dollars.”
Really!?! An essential service?! Poets are an essential service?!? Washington’s unemployment rate jumped from 5.1% to 9.7% in the last year, but I’m really glad the state’s poetry czar is there to keep Seattle’s local poetry slam going strong. Really!?!
Filthy Seattle poetry slams! They’re the reason we got into this budget mess in the first place! We need to have an anti-poetry tea party! Who’s with me? Gaaaah! I’m so outraged! I can’t even see straight because the blood vessel in my forehead has exploded and I’ve got angry, angry blood in my eyes!
That said, our state poet laureate is not very good:
(Thanks, Brian, for the tip.)
To spend a dime on poesy
Is nothing short of heresy
I do declare I am outraged,
And pray a protest will be staged
It’s probably my network at work, but the clip you posted simply says “Connection Failed”-which I guess is to say, his work just isn’t getting through to me.
I love Americans for Tax Reform’s rage, though. Libertarians for a flat tax are almost as interested in shooting themselves in the feet as those Log Cabin freaks.
if nothing else, it’s providing this guy a job so there’s one more spot open at the local McDonalds.
I like Sam Green, why the poo-pooing?
Does this person even really receive any sort of compensation? Isn’t “Poet Laureate” some sort of honorary title, like “Lieutenant Governor”?
Okay, okay, so it’s a $10K a year honorarium. Wow, that’s, like, what, 0.000014% of the annual State Budget?
And yeah, striking that is going to make such a HUGE difference in our $8,000,000,000 operating deficit for the next fiscal year.
Heckuvajob anti-pork cruisaders, only $7,999,90,000 more to go…
Oh, and just for shits-and-giggles, $10K works out to roughly $0.0015 per citizen per year.
Don’t spend that win-fall all in one place, kids…
It enriches people’s thinking and lives. It makes us look at the world with different eyes. The arts are priceless!
sorry, vince, but art, at least laureate poetry art, has a price. it is worth $10,000/year.
Sarcasm doesn’t work in print.
$10k is a deal, truly. I first saw Mr. Green a few weeks back at the Cultural Congress. For this amount we are getting a man who is working tirelessly, day and night to get people excited about poetry. Seriously I think $10k works out to about fourty cents an hour for this guy.
with our unemployment rate jumping from 5.1% to 9.7%, they want to cause another person to be unemployed? they think his 10k will employ how many people? faux outrage enrages me
I think we need to take all Libertarians and put them on ice floes with a single chocolate bar.
And then let it melt.
@5,6 and 7 COMTE, the fact that you did the math brings joy to my life. Thank you.
Government involvement in the arts is like government involvement in religion — it cheapens it and waters it down while generating lots of fake controversy. What’s the point?
you can be against government funding for the arts or you can be against this. you can’t be both.
@14:
Well, the calculator is just sitting here on my desk…
Yakima Herald Republic ran a great story on the Poet Laureate a couple weeks ago – http://www.yakima-herald.com/stories/200…
said the biased Communications Manager for the Washington State Arts Commission.
Americans for Tax Reform blog is right, if we get rid of this Poet the entire economy will finally be able to bounce back. I mean when you really think about it this poet caused the entire economic recession, not the banks, I guess we know better in the future.
I understand it may be a problem, or even something you disagree with, but adding jobless numbers to the mix doesn’t make any sense. THIS ONE JOB THE GOVERNMENT CREATED COULD HAVE…umm…uuuuu…wait I don’t think $20,000 would have done jack shit, and frankly it’s better than having one more homeless poet. :p
Sam Green works his ass off traveling all over the state teaching poetry in schools. He is an excellent teacher. Moreover, most of the schools that he visits are in the middle of nowhere. Why is it absurd that the state is paying a teacher $20,000 a year? And he is very good, one of the sharpest and generous minds that I’ve encountered. The Stranger should do a feature on him.
Oh. Make that $10,000 a year. Sam Green is awesome. It should also be noted that he and his wife run Brooding Heron, an independent publisher. That’s awesome too.
I had no idea poetry had grown so dangerously powerful. (A single poet destroying the state’s economy!) Welcome back poetry.
Sam Green is a remarkable poet:
Old Man Folding a Kerchief in the Supermarket
for Hayden Carruth
He has used it to wipe the filth
from the table where his daughter
has left him to do her shopping
spilling it from the pocket of his jacket
like a small blue lake
the color of an old house dress.
Now, he is folding it back into shape
with blunt fingers, hunched
over his labor, watching intently
his hands as though
they might betray him.
For ten minutes this has been
his whole work, & he has gathered
all the delicate threads
of his attention into this single
act, oblivious to the fact
that anyone might be watching,
that he might be teaching us all
how to live.