Why Poets Don't Become Famous.......

I get it.....

There's not many things worse than a baker telling the entire poetry community about a flaw in their system that nobody seems to notice, but I'm going to take a chance, and risk severing a few potential friendships to shed insight that I am betting will help my friends who love verse.

To start off, this post isn't aimed at those of you who are happy to sit down and write poems for fun, but instead I am talking out loud in front of those poets who harbor asperations of reading in front of large audiences.

Or any audience for that matter.

The Test -

Saturday Night Live

Jay Leno

Conan O'Brian

David Letterman

Every Other Show That Has Held National Swag

If you look at the venues listed overhead and make a list as to who has preformed on these programs, you might come up with something like this..................

Musicians

Actors

Politicians

Acrobats

Athletes

Animal Trainers

Chefs

Tattoo Artists

Etc-Etc

The list goes on, but its not very often, or ever that you'll find poets on these programs.

In a way this boggles me.

It seems wrong.

So after thinking about this for awhile, I rendered my clothes, shaved my head and rubbed ashes on my face as I journeyed into the wasteland to find out......

Why can't poets have commercial succsess?

I would love to tell you about the veil opening and angels hovering above, whispering truth into my ears, but I'm guessing you might not buy that so instead.......

Let me just blurt out the answer.................

PRODUCTION VALUE

That's correct, production value.

Most poets simply don't have any.

Bono has sunglasses

Michael Jordon a basketball and a wicked vertical

Snooki sells sex- flesh -additude and parties

In closing, what I;'m really trying to get across here is, I really love watching poets present live.

Theres nothing I would love more than poetry holding it's own with the other arts.

But when I think how for every literary reading theres 20 concerts, 42 sporting events, 8 cooking demo's.....it makes me wonder if we poets shouldn't discuss how PRODUCTION VALUE creates oppurtunity, because it adds to people entertainment.

I'm not sure I have the answer to how one incorperates production values into poetry, but I am guessing that I am going to start later this month by incorperating a bad a** wardrobe into my set, and adding on from there.

Have a good weekend guys, and if you have thoughts on the topic, I would love to hear them.

Bob Dylan VS Finley

Just the other night I attended the Bob Dylan concert with my wife.

During the intermission I ran into Finley and his son.

In a way it seemed almost surreal.

Mike and I have had, oh I don't know....like maybe a 1/2 million Bob Dylan conversations.

And now.....all these years later, the 3 of us were in the same room.

I didn't know what to expect from Bob at one of his concerts, I had never seen him perform before.

But truth be told, I was kinda surprised that he did "Tangled Up In Blue" for his 4th song of the night, after all....it is not only his greatest song, but in my opinion, the finest song that's ever been recorded.

As I sat back letting all this sink in, I had to smile remembering a conversation that I once had with Mike.....

Klecko - Ya know, what's the odds that 2 of the best songs ever would make it onto the same album?

Finley - Huh?

Klecko - I'm talking about "Blood On The Tracks" since it has both Tangled Up In Blue and Shelter From The Storm.

Finley - Those are both good songs, but I'm not sure they can even be considered as the greatest song ever recorded when they are not even the best song on the album.

Klecko - Huh?

Finley - Just go home and listen to the last song on the album "Bucket Of Tears" and you will know what I'm talking about.

Who is Who?

Finley would be John........

I'm Paul.