Poetry Foundation—Free Speech in Peril

Literature should not be suppressed merely because it offends the moral code of the censor.

          —Chief Justice William O Douglas

The selector begins, ideally, with a presumption in favor of liberty of thought; the censor does not. The aim of the selector is to promote reading not to inhibit it; to multiply the points of view which will find expression, not limit them; to be a channel for communication, not a bar against it.
           —Lester Asheim, “Not Censorship but Selection” (Wilson Library Bulletin, 1953)
All censorships exist to prevent anyone from challenging current conceptions and existing institutions. All progress is initiated by challenging current conceptions, and executed by supplanting existing institutions. Consequently, the first condition of progress is the removal of all censorships. There is the whole case against censorships in a nutshell.

           —George Bernard Shaw

Poetry Foundation operates as one of a number of modern-day LITERARY CENSORING ORGANIZATIONS akin to the Catholic Church of yesteryear which put together the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. It refuses to even list The American Dissident with other literary journals listed on its website.  Today, it is an extremely wealthy foundation thanks to the $100 million donation made by a drug corporation heir.  Clearly, that money will be used to promote elitist literature and censor (moderate, filter out, etc.) any literature daring to criticize that stance.  In fact, it is likely that money will serve to control the very direction of poetry in America.  Democracy continues its downward spiral thanks in part to the democracy-indifferent citizens managing Poetry Foundation.

Date:  Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:12:02 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

Hi,
Would you consider listing The American Dissident, a literary journal of unusually critical writing on your site?  If not, why not?  The AD is a nonprofit 501c3 organization. 
 

Date:  Thu, 14 Jun 2007 14:29:07 -0500
From:   "Michael Marcinkowski" <mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>
To:  "George Slone" <todslone@yahoo.com>

Subject:  re: Listing

George,

Thank you for letting us know about The American Dissident and for your interest in the site. We'll review the link and see if it would be 

relevant to link to it from a site dedicated to poetry.

Thank you again,

Michael Marcinkowski

Senior Web Producer

The Poetry Foundation

444 N. Michigan Avenue

Suite 1850

Chicago IL 60611

Date:  Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:54:27 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

Michael,
A true test for democracy in literature will be your not deciding against listing The American Dissident because of its critique of Poetry Foundation, Christian Wiman et al. 
Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone

www.theamericandissident.org

Date:  Fri, 22 Jun 2007 03:35:21 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Michael,
Thanks much for your rapid reply.  It would be in the interest of POETRY (the magazine and the genre) for you to list The American Dissident because the journal is unusually critical and bold regarding the typical academic or pseudo-academic journals listed.  BTW, The American Dissident is a 501 c3 nonprofit.  It has also criticized Wiman and Barr, but shouldn’t poets be open to such critique?  When you review the link, you might wish to especially examine the highly caustic essay I authored, recently published by Modern-Review: http://www.theamericandissident.org/ColdPassion.htm.  Not one academic lit journal out of 50 would touch it... and that is precisely the problem with those journals, editors and poets:  THEY SEEK TO KEEP THE GATES OF THE AGORA OF IDEAS HERMETICALLY SEALED.  Does Poetry Foundation intend to follow their example?  My fear is that it definitely does and that its huge endowment will succeed in stifling the voices of poets not permitted in its agora.  

Sincerely,
G. Tod Slone, Editor

The American Dissident

Date:  Fri, 13 Jul 2007 06:56:37 -0700 (PDT)
From:  "George Slone" <todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

Several times I’ve written you in the hope you might list The American Dissident, a 501 c3 nonprofit literary journal, on your website.  The journal’s fundamental premise is quite pertinent, if not extraordinary in the world of literature and academe: 

Vigorous debate is crucial for any thriving democracy, yet established-order literati tend to reject it, as if instinctively.  For the sake of democracy, poets must be more than mere wordsmiths of unusual wit and professors more than mere scholars in narrow fields of specialization.  They must be willing to "go upright and vital, and speak the rude truth in all ways" (Emerson) and thus let their lives "be a counterfriction to stop the machine (Thoreau)."  For truth, they must be willing to risk career, perquisites, and good standing.

The Academy of A m e r i c a n Poets censored me this past July for simply attempting to realize that fundamental premise (consult the censored transcript at www.theamericandissident.org/AcademyAmericanPoets.htm). Do you support that incident of censorship?  Your silence will serve as a response. 

Date:  Tue, 11 Dec 2007 12:09:18 -0800 (PST)
From:  "George Slone" <todslone@yahoo.com>
To:  "Michael Marcinkowski" <mmarcinkowski@poetryfoundation.org>

Subject:  re: Listing

Michael Marcinkowski, Poetry Foundation:
Vigorous debate is the cornerstone of any thriving democracy, yet you, Wiman, and the Poetry Foundation seek to keep the doors of debate firmly closed to outsiders.  With the huge mass of money at your disposal, my fear is you will shamefully succeed.  With the little funds at mine, I fight tooth and nail to make these facts known.  But my battle is a lost cause, though a good cause.