POETRY AND BASEBALL

"Do you know what it’s like
To be chased by the Ghost of Failure
While staring through Victory’s door?
Of course you do, you’re a Mets fan"

FRANK MESSINA, the self-proclaimed Mets Poet.

Forget alcoholism, depression, and suicide...to be a real poet you have to be a Mets Fan!!! Just ask Frank Messina, self-proclaimed "Mets Poet," who is likening this season's Metropolitan's collapse to the fall of Troy. Just like a poet...alluding to the classics.

THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT

OK, I figured out what to do. I just deleted one of my blogs that contained ALOT of my previously unpublished poetry, because I'm finding that many publishing venues will not accept work if it has been published somewhere before, AND most are including internet publishing , even blogs! I guess it makes sense. Why would they want to print something if it is readily available on the internet for free?

So, until further notice, (most of) MY POETRY WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ON MY BLOGS. Sorry to disappoint my legion poetry fans, but you'll have to wait until it comes out in print, or is accepted by some reputable e-lit 'zine, like The Long Island Quarterly or Literary Mama.

Blogs and Patient Privacy

I worry when I hear stories of doctors blogs being attacked, or worse, used in court during malpractice litigation. Apparently, anonymous discussion of a patient's problem on an anonymous blog, with adequate disclaimers, can be traced to the author and considered an invasion of patient privacy. I worry now, about my blog, The Wounded Surgeon, posting my experiences during cancer surgery. But wait, I AM the patient whose privacy I invaded. I worry about publishing my poetry, at least as obscure as blogging, but often inspired by patients and their stories. I worry about my latest blog, Constipation Corner, which I wanted to set up FOR patients, with a link from my practice's website, and on which I planned to post some relatively reliable information regarding the disease processes I treat every day. I worry that I am now sucked into this "culture of worry," and that the same forces that have driven up the cost of healthcare (fat managed care companies, shrinking reimbursements, rising malpractice insurance rates, fear of being sued) are now seeping into and suffocating the last breaths of pure expression and pure communication between a doctor and her patients, between a surgeon and her self.

I worry what to do with such small hands.

The Trouble with Legislating Poetry

In the early 1800's Percy Bysshe Shelley argued that "Poets and philosphers are the unacknowledged legislators of the world." The "unacknowledged" part was driven home at Monday's meeting of the Nassau County Legislators where 6 of 7 county lawmakers voted against the appointment of Maxwell Corydon Wheat, Jr. as Nassau County's first poet laureate, saying some of the poets' writings were offensive to our troops.



In disbelief I read the article in Newsday. Then I watched the video at Newsday.com/LI. Then I checked some email from my poetry friends...we had been tracking this event since the Nassau County Legislature had voted last year to create this position, a ceremonial post, to be held by an artist residing in Nassau County who would commit to promoting poetry in the region. He would be required to give two public readings each year, visit schools and libraries, and foster appreciation for the art of poetry, and receive no stipend. I even found an invitation to the event -- poor, unknowing poets thinking it was a done deal. Little did they realize that there were no laurels for a crowning that day. I think I hear some of them in the background of Wheat's video cackling their disappontment, what to do with the banner.

Hold on to it, girls. In an excellent essay in The Guardian last fall, Adrienne Rich spoke of the importance of poetry as a different way of seeing, as a reinvention of vision, as a freedom to express our existence in this world. Poets are the defenders of this freedom, this democracy. Poets protect our freedoms in ways that legislators never will. And they'll do it without a stipend, if you'll let them.

Sleepless in Setauket

As the Democrats bevy up for the '08 Campaign, (did anyone see the hysterical parody of the DNC meeting on MadTV last night?), I am throwing my hat into another ring, with THREE NEW POEMS on my poetry site, BardParker Poets' Society. Speaking of society, I am considering entering the world of Internet Poetry and joining an online poetry forum, after spending some time on the IBPC website yesterday, and realizing in the past year how little time I have to attend actual bricks and mortar poetry readings or workshops. We'll see...