“Sagbottom.”  That was one of the many affectionate insults my mother used on her children.  For some reason, I thought of it just after having another of my terrific ideas for the advancement of otherstream art.  Why?  I’m sure because I instantly realize how quickly I would sag away from doing anything more than announce the idea.  Well, maybe I’ll surprise myself.  In any case, the idea is this: I put up a website with ten visual poems of my choosing in it with a commentary–and a request for commentaries by others on the poems.  A minimum of 500 words and, in my view, serious.

First thought: no one would bother with a commentary.  Second thought, I could post commentaries on the poems already made, perhaps first asking their authors for amplification.  Third thought, a highly unserious one: that an English professor, or even high school English teacher, require each student in a class to write a commentary on one of the poems.  I could post any of these I thought deserve posting at the website, and the others at a students’ website.

This is a good idea that would work for collections of conventional poems, too.   I remain confident nothing will come of it, but think it will be fun to gather ten poems.  I have one already, which probably gave me the idea.  It’s “Drift Here,” by Marilyn Rosenberg, from the exhibition at SCRIPTjr.nl that Andrew Topel curated and I’m doing a Small Press Review column about which will have a paragrah on Marilyn’s poem.  Ah, but my paragraph is only a little over 200 words in length.  But that’s good–I can require essays of at least 200 words . . . or even just 100, which should help attract commentators.