Billy Collins, one of the country’s most popular poets, had never seen his work in e-book form until he recently downloaded his latest collection on his Kindle.
In some ways, I think that the internet is perfect for poetry. I like to read long material on paper-- a book is just about the perfect vehicle for reading a novel (I can lie back on the couch and read it.). A poem, on the other hand, is short enough that's it's not a problem to read on the screen.
--anyway, it's nice to see Billy Collins when his head isn't inside a giant catfish looking for poems!
I also like to read poetry on the Internet, Geoff, but I've had the frustrating experience of having my own poetry published on the Internet at a website that couldn't format it properly. It's been sitting there, looking all wrong, for years now, bugging me. That's just one poem. An entire e-book would make me nuts.
I think the Kindle is likely to bring poetry to new audiences. You can change the size of the font. If a tiny font size is required to see the poem as it is written, then the publisher/poet should not offer the book in a Kindle format. Those are decisions made by the publisher - not Amazon.com.
4 comments:
An interesting article.
In some ways, I think that the internet is perfect for poetry. I like to read long material on paper-- a book is just about the perfect vehicle for reading a novel (I can lie back on the couch and read it.). A poem, on the other hand, is short enough that's it's not a problem to read on the screen.
--anyway, it's nice to see Billy Collins when his head isn't inside a giant catfish looking for poems!
I also like to read poetry on the Internet, Geoff, but I've had the frustrating experience of having my own poetry published on the Internet at a website that couldn't format it properly. It's been sitting there, looking all wrong, for years now, bugging me. That's just one poem. An entire e-book would make me nuts.
I think the Kindle is likely to bring poetry to new audiences. You can change the size of the font. If a tiny font size is required to see the poem as it is written, then the publisher/poet should not offer the book in a Kindle format. Those are decisions made by the publisher - not Amazon.com.
Some thing poems are a good fit with:
Bathroom stall walls
High School Text Book Covers
T-Shirts and Ball Caps
Homeless people
Post a Comment