The Greatest Poet of 2010 Project
You know, there isn't a lot of qualitative difference between your average superstar poet and your average poet-next-to-the-superstar poet. I don't mean to say that superstar poets are actually not as good as they have been reported to be, or that the poet-next-to-the-superstar-poet isn't sometimes less deserving of accolades than the poet they're standing next to. But when you take the superstar of a given community of poets (say, slam poets or that one local mic at the Donkey Bar), there really isn't this vast sea of difference in terms of what they do, say or represent. There are some exceedingly rare execeptions, but really, a lot of this stuff is right place, right time. There are poets who have a complete career based on right place, right time. I also think that some aspects of superstardom have less to do with the content and quality of a given superstar's work than it does with how they're perceived through persona, behavior or performance. Sometimes it even just comes down to "are they the New York/L.A./Chicago/Big City poet that's black/cute/young enough?"

No new rant there. I'm just setting you up for my awesome fantasy idea.

Poets still, for the most part, control all aspects of their culture and their dissemenation, from creation to what shows up on TV. We still retain a lot of say in that, and in most quarters where poetry lives, we retain all say. I think we should decide to use that power and really show the world we mean business. We make our own heroes, our own presidents, our own kings, our own superstars.

I think we should all - ALL - spend one year embracing one poet as THE poet of our generation in every quarter and - and this is important - that it be a poet who right now has the poems but isn't a superstar at all.

We should herald this cat as the champ for no other reason than because we decided to say, "no disrespect, but this is our cat for 2010, Earth".
We should have t-shirts of this cat. Bumper stickers. Fansites.
We should have this cat on tour everywhere.
We should not feel threatened by this cat. This cat is our Burning Man effigy, the symbol of our power wrought whole and frank.
We should mention this cat from stages everywhere at our features, open mics, slams and readings.
We should thank this cat in all of our CDs and chapbooks.

For one year.
The year after that, we pick someone else who the sun don't shine on but should.

Before anyone starts suggesting their friend or the poet they represent through their *cough* management agency, a couple of ground rules:

1) This poet cannot be a touring staple.
2) This poet has to have work that works on the page and the stage.
3) This poet cannot have been published in "Poetry" magazine.
4) This poet cannot have been on Def Poetry Jam.
5) This poet must be kind of a cool person. And smart.
6) This poet must be the kind of person who, when they find out they're not the person, wouldn't think for a second, "That should have been me."
7) This poet cannot already have a book or record deal.

There is nothing wrong with poets who do/have been/are the things I list above. But if we do this right all of those things will come to this poet because WE made it possible by willing it selflessly.

And because this is my fantasy and because I had the balls to suggest it and because it's not like anyone is going to jump on board to help somebody become famous while they're still trying to crack the system, I even have a poet picked for 2010. No need for democracy; let's just jump in, fantasy audiences and fans! Someone whose work is really, really good and deserving of not only wider recognition, but praise from every poet they come across who isn't a bent jackalope already. Someone who can engage a room of people with their work for an evening, or put out a book that wants you to keep turning the pages. Someone who hasn't won the national competitions, performed or written. And despite all of these things, is someone most poets don't know remotely well enough, if at all, and who we should make King or Queen of the Wild Rumpus of Poetry for one whole year starting on January 1.

My pick for 2010 is...

Wait: I got to write some more NaNo pages. I'll tell you later.