“On Q&A, I have had people from many walks of life,” I say at the outset of my latest episode. “Politicians, novelists, athletes, comedians, scientists, journalists, businessmen, sopranos, human-rights activists — on and on. I don’t think I have ever before had a poet. So, today is the day to have one. She is Danielle Rose.”
Yes. In September 2021, she made a bit of a splash, by tweeting:
I wish poets understood that the general population has no interest in what we do, so when we speak we are speaking only to each other. The delusion that poetry is something powerful is a straight line to all kinds of toxic positivities that are really just us lying to ourselves.
This tweet got her fired, as poetry editor of Barren Magazine. I wrote about the matter in a blogpost, here. In any event, Danielle Rose landed on her feet. And she has many interesting things to say, about poetry, the literary life, and our society.
Do people read poetry anymore? Memorize it? Who are the poets with a public reputation today? Will there be another Frost, say? How has the Internet changed things, and what have the social media done? If Keats or Shelley were alive today, would he be writing poems? Or making TikTok videos or something?
Danielle Rose is most interesting to hear from. Again, our Q&A is here.