Walt Silliman

In some ways the beliefs and practices of Walt Silliman look back to an earlier period of magical poetics, a trip backwards as far back as twenty years before Silliman's own time, to the era of Pre-Blog. Yet Silliman, who was born in the good old US of A, was possibly (if you believe his version of the story) directly involved the great surge of Langprop that took place late in last century (if you believe that such a thing happened). It may have, but most of us blinked.

Suppose Silliman is just too annoying to save Poetry... its a stretch, but what if? Then his poems could be seen as a metaphor for the West's reluctance to tackle issues such as Aids in Africa but still act like something is being done. Maybe better to think of him as a Live Aid Poet able to show up on a moment's notice for a half baked-bean fund raiser. He is just another example of those tireless self-promoting Poets who view the "community-as-consumers". You know the type, you went to school with them (or did they go to school with you?)

Silliman says language "cleaned my clock in a Los Angeles motel ... she was quite a feisty". Presumably he means that his poems are like the hookers he shares with Jeff Huth as they travel the country attending conferences and preforming at benefits.