FOOEY On The Poetry Foundation! Lorna Dee Unplugged!
This has been so frustrating and disappointing. (Now Blogger's blogging down so I can't even post about it. This is my third try.) It's unbelievable how they have treated me at the Poetry Foundation. Now I am completely erased from the site and it is (was) a mystery to me. If they couldn't find my emailed blog, then why cancel the entire week? Why not just post it as soon as they found it? I sent it in in plenty time as instructed. I offered to give them all the pieces at once on tuesday night so I wouldn't have to post every night. Technical difficulties? How hard is it to take text and paste it? I even commented on my own post, the one they posted and zapped on monday, and pasted the entire essay for tuesday on it. They cut off the comments, and cut me out of the commenting system. I even tried to post a comment in answer to a question about my poem. Nada. What happened? Obviously something else is going on here. They claimed they weren't receiving my emails, but they got all the ones where I mention my contract just fine. FOOEY! Foetry, indeed. I rearranged my summer for this (originally it was to run July 29, but they changed that at the last minute as well--when I keep announcing that I'm guest blogging for the Poetry Foundation, and they don't run my blogs, or even mention my name, it makes me look delusional--a professional liability.). They didn't even reschedule my blog, just "don't call us, we'll call you" and we'll be "unavailable for the rest of the week." FOOEY! And the worst part is, I do all this work for a multimillion dollar foundation, and now they won't accept it and pay a poor poet. Fooey. Can you spell X=I=C=A=N=A? "Ch-i-c-a-n-e-r-y."
Please help by reposting and circulating this essay on Chicano poetry, the one they, evidently, refuse to run. I can't sell it now, anyway. And I'm SO disappointed that these wonderful writers won't, once again, get the exposure that they deserve. For Lorna Dee Cervantes "Unplugged", check back here for the rest of the essays on, ironically, poetry and neglect. I'm outta here! Off to get my wounds licked. Ciao, baby. Hasta la victoria siempre!
Please help by reposting and circulating this essay on Chicano poetry, the one they, evidently, refuse to run. I can't sell it now, anyway. And I'm SO disappointed that these wonderful writers won't, once again, get the exposure that they deserve. For Lorna Dee Cervantes "Unplugged", check back here for the rest of the essays on, ironically, poetry and neglect. I'm outta here! Off to get my wounds licked. Ciao, baby. Hasta la victoria siempre!
posted by Lorna Dee Cervantes at 7:28 AM
5 Comments:
Very odd. It does seem, from what you've said, that there is "something else" going on. That's just rude......just freaky behavior!
That is just awfull of the Poetry Foundation! I guess this is what happens when poetry is in the hands of any multi-million dollar foundation/corporation. (it is like caging an animal).
They must be ashamed of their actions since they erase your comments (freaky behavior? maybe. guilty behavior? yes.)
I wish you luck in your future dealings with them and I absolutely adore the essay on Chicano Poetry.
Bum deal, L.D. Even more disheartening than a rejection slip is to work hard on work you think will be published only to have it snatched away (by a technical glitch, no less). The best thing to do (as is the case, too with other forms of rejection) is to go on writing and publishing elsewhere. I always find writing helps fix my thoughts, so I can build upon them later. Perhaps this is all warm-up for something even greater. Not fun at the time, but maybe better times are ahead. Anyway, I applaud you for moving on.
Hey Lorna,
I enjoyed very much your speech. Just one thing, though: it's Nezahualcóyotl, not "Nezahualcoatl". A cóyotl is not the same than a coatl. Maybe a typo, but I just felt like pointing it out; you know how it is when anglos almost never tend to get Spanish and we excuse them because they are anglos -but they never excuse us for having an accent.
It would be interesting to address this issue from the Chicano perspective; the need for Chicanos to try harder to speak better Spanish and to read more about náhuatl and other indigenous languages our ancestors used to speak and create poetry and myths with.
Thank you for the thought-provoking blog.
-Laura, Mexico City
You are and will always be a great poet and a wonderful human being. Do not spend time on their ugliness.
Take care, hermanita.
Esmeralda Bernal
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