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CNN Live Today

Poetic Justice

Aired November 20, 2002 - 11:43   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: For aspiring writers and novelists, few things carry the dread of a rejection letter. But in Chicago, one woman followed up on her rejected poetry by, get this, she wrote something the magazine couldn't possibly turn down, a bequest for $100 million. That's right.
Reporter Judy Sue of our Chicago affiliate WLS now has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY SUE, WLS REPORTER: Since 1912, "The Poetry" has been known to have published the first major works of great poets like Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, and T.S. Elliott. But what the small literary magazine hasn't been known for is a steady cash flow.

JOE PARISI, EDITOR, "POETRY": There were at least eight times when they were truly on the brink, when there was less than $100 in the till.

SUE: But that's all about to change for this four-staff member publication thanks to a generous donation from Ruth Lilly, the only surviving grade grandchild of the founder of Eli Lilly and Company. It started with a phone call from Lilly's attorney.

PARISI: He couldn't go into all the details right now but we were her plan. It involved a considerable amount of money.

SUE: An amount of $100 million conservatively. Ironically, Lilly's relationship with the magazine started with her own hopes of getting in the magazine. Like all the others, she submitted her poems, but they never got published. In fact, Parisi wrote the rejection letters.

PARISI: But she seems not to have held it against us. Some people, as you know, don't take rejection very well, and I think that's all the more remarkable is this is someone who has never appeared in the magazine, never tried really to curry favor.

SUE: Since then Lilly has sponsored countless prizes and fins through the magazine and now the stunning gift.

PARISI: So I shall not at all miss never having to have a fund- raiser again.

SUE: Judy Sue, ABC-7 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: Now, the magazine's editor says that at times the journal assets had dipped down to $100. Not anymore. It's now the world's largest foundation devoted to poetry. In fact, I think they have an endowment that's larger than that of many universities. You think a poet wouldn't be at a loss for words, but in the "New York Times" Billy Collins said the Ruth Lilly gift was a real mind blower. He's published several collections of poetry and his latest one out is "Nine Horses." He's one of few poets that have received critical acclaim. Now that the hefty poetry gift to "Poetry" magazine has had some time to sink in, we decided to check back in with America's premier poet to see what he thinks about the boost to his genre. What do you think about it? I know you had to be a bit surprised when you first got the word about it.

BILL COLLINS, U.S. POET LAUREATE: Well, it is a staggering figure. It's an awful lot of zeros for poetry. To paraphrase Calvin Trillin, most poets are used to getting paid in the high two figures. And this is a nine-figure amount. And that doesn't really seem to go hand in hand with the reputation of poetry.

HARRIS: I'm sorry, I was going to ask you about that. How do you think this is going to work out now that it's been done?

COLLINS: Well, it's going to change the quality, not quality, but the definition of the magazine. It's certainly more than enough money than you need to run a magazine. You could probably run the "New Yorker" for 10 or 15 years without advertising with that kind of money.

HARRIS: Yes. That's amazing.

So then -- and this magazine, as I understand it, I must admit, I have not seen the magazine, I understand they've been operating with a budget of maybe $60,000 or so a year, and now they've got this kind of chunk of money. Have you talked at all to Mr. Parisi about what he plans on doing and the kind of changes he'll get to make with the magazine?

COLLINS: Well, right now they pay the contributors $2 a line, and I suggested that they up that to $2,000 a line. I don't think Parisi's going to go along with that, but they want to give money to encourage the growth of poetry in high schools and other institutions across the country. And I think it turns the magazine into a foundation in itself.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: It's a very good, healthy shot in the arm for poetry.

HARRIS: All right, so now that poetry has gotten this shot in the arm, what does this say about the landscape right now or maybe the future of poetry overall. When Ted Turner, who is very close to us as you know, came forward and donated $1 billion to the U.N., he threw down the gauntlet and dared other very rich folks around the world to do the same thing. Do you think that's going to happen now and they'll be a big payoff for poetry or literature overall because of this?

COLLINS: Well, it's a little hard to -- be nice if we had matching funds for Mrs. Lilly's gift. I know that "Poetry" magazine has picked up 200 new subscribers a day since the gift has been given. And they will probably get a lot more submissions. They now get about 90,000 poems a year, and they publish about 300. So the odds are not very good for prospective poets.

HARRIS: And, well, that shouldn't deter anyone because this one poet, or poet to be at least with Ms. Lilly, that never happened with her and look what happened with the money that she actually did donate. That's an amazing story.

COLLINS: True enough.

HARRIS: Now, Mr. Collins, we understand that you, you have a poem with you this morning that -- could we impose upon you to deliver for us?

COLLINS: Well, no imposition at all. It's a poem from my new book, and it's called "Poetry," and it's one of those attempts in a poem to define what poetry is.

Poetry: Call it a field where the animals who were forgotten by the Ark come to graze under the evening clouds, or a cistern where the rain fell before history trickles over a concrete leap.

However you see it, this is no place to set up the three-legged easel of realism or make the reader climb over the many fences of a plot. Let the portly novelist with his noisy typewriter describe the city where Francine was born, how Albert read the paper on the train, how curtains were blowing in the bedroom. Let the playwright with her torn cardigan and a dog curled on the rug move the characters from the wings blindly to the stage. Poetry is no place for that. We have enough to do complaining about the price of tobacco, passing the dripping ladle and singing songs to a bird in a cage. We are busy doing nothing, and all we need for that is an afternoon, a row boat under a blue sky, and maybe a man fishing from a stone bridge. Or better still, nobody on that bridge at all.

HARRIS: And with those words, I think we now understand why "Poetry" magazine may be actually worth $100 million. That genre definitely does need to be saved and preserved.

Billy Collins, thank you very much for your time this morning. Good luck with the book, we appreciate it. Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired November 20, 2002 - 11:43   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: For aspiring writers and novelists, few things carry the dread of a rejection letter. But in Chicago, one woman followed up on her rejected poetry by, get this, she wrote something the magazine couldn't possibly turn down, a bequest for $100 million. That's right.
Reporter Judy Sue of our Chicago affiliate WLS now has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUDY SUE, WLS REPORTER: Since 1912, "The Poetry" has been known to have published the first major works of great poets like Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, and T.S. Elliott. But what the small literary magazine hasn't been known for is a steady cash flow.

JOE PARISI, EDITOR, "POETRY": There were at least eight times when they were truly on the brink, when there was less than $100 in the till.

SUE: But that's all about to change for this four-staff member publication thanks to a generous donation from Ruth Lilly, the only surviving grade grandchild of the founder of Eli Lilly and Company. It started with a phone call from Lilly's attorney.

PARISI: He couldn't go into all the details right now but we were her plan. It involved a considerable amount of money.

SUE: An amount of $100 million conservatively. Ironically, Lilly's relationship with the magazine started with her own hopes of getting in the magazine. Like all the others, she submitted her poems, but they never got published. In fact, Parisi wrote the rejection letters.

PARISI: But she seems not to have held it against us. Some people, as you know, don't take rejection very well, and I think that's all the more remarkable is this is someone who has never appeared in the magazine, never tried really to curry favor.

SUE: Since then Lilly has sponsored countless prizes and fins through the magazine and now the stunning gift.

PARISI: So I shall not at all miss never having to have a fund- raiser again.

SUE: Judy Sue, ABC-7 News.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: Now, the magazine's editor says that at times the journal assets had dipped down to $100. Not anymore. It's now the world's largest foundation devoted to poetry. In fact, I think they have an endowment that's larger than that of many universities. You think a poet wouldn't be at a loss for words, but in the "New York Times" Billy Collins said the Ruth Lilly gift was a real mind blower. He's published several collections of poetry and his latest one out is "Nine Horses." He's one of few poets that have received critical acclaim. Now that the hefty poetry gift to "Poetry" magazine has had some time to sink in, we decided to check back in with America's premier poet to see what he thinks about the boost to his genre. What do you think about it? I know you had to be a bit surprised when you first got the word about it.

BILL COLLINS, U.S. POET LAUREATE: Well, it is a staggering figure. It's an awful lot of zeros for poetry. To paraphrase Calvin Trillin, most poets are used to getting paid in the high two figures. And this is a nine-figure amount. And that doesn't really seem to go hand in hand with the reputation of poetry.

HARRIS: I'm sorry, I was going to ask you about that. How do you think this is going to work out now that it's been done?

COLLINS: Well, it's going to change the quality, not quality, but the definition of the magazine. It's certainly more than enough money than you need to run a magazine. You could probably run the "New Yorker" for 10 or 15 years without advertising with that kind of money.

HARRIS: Yes. That's amazing.

So then -- and this magazine, as I understand it, I must admit, I have not seen the magazine, I understand they've been operating with a budget of maybe $60,000 or so a year, and now they've got this kind of chunk of money. Have you talked at all to Mr. Parisi about what he plans on doing and the kind of changes he'll get to make with the magazine?

COLLINS: Well, right now they pay the contributors $2 a line, and I suggested that they up that to $2,000 a line. I don't think Parisi's going to go along with that, but they want to give money to encourage the growth of poetry in high schools and other institutions across the country. And I think it turns the magazine into a foundation in itself.

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: It's a very good, healthy shot in the arm for poetry.

HARRIS: All right, so now that poetry has gotten this shot in the arm, what does this say about the landscape right now or maybe the future of poetry overall. When Ted Turner, who is very close to us as you know, came forward and donated $1 billion to the U.N., he threw down the gauntlet and dared other very rich folks around the world to do the same thing. Do you think that's going to happen now and they'll be a big payoff for poetry or literature overall because of this?

COLLINS: Well, it's a little hard to -- be nice if we had matching funds for Mrs. Lilly's gift. I know that "Poetry" magazine has picked up 200 new subscribers a day since the gift has been given. And they will probably get a lot more submissions. They now get about 90,000 poems a year, and they publish about 300. So the odds are not very good for prospective poets.

HARRIS: And, well, that shouldn't deter anyone because this one poet, or poet to be at least with Ms. Lilly, that never happened with her and look what happened with the money that she actually did donate. That's an amazing story.

COLLINS: True enough.

HARRIS: Now, Mr. Collins, we understand that you, you have a poem with you this morning that -- could we impose upon you to deliver for us?

COLLINS: Well, no imposition at all. It's a poem from my new book, and it's called "Poetry," and it's one of those attempts in a poem to define what poetry is.

Poetry: Call it a field where the animals who were forgotten by the Ark come to graze under the evening clouds, or a cistern where the rain fell before history trickles over a concrete leap.

However you see it, this is no place to set up the three-legged easel of realism or make the reader climb over the many fences of a plot. Let the portly novelist with his noisy typewriter describe the city where Francine was born, how Albert read the paper on the train, how curtains were blowing in the bedroom. Let the playwright with her torn cardigan and a dog curled on the rug move the characters from the wings blindly to the stage. Poetry is no place for that. We have enough to do complaining about the price of tobacco, passing the dripping ladle and singing songs to a bird in a cage. We are busy doing nothing, and all we need for that is an afternoon, a row boat under a blue sky, and maybe a man fishing from a stone bridge. Or better still, nobody on that bridge at all.

HARRIS: And with those words, I think we now understand why "Poetry" magazine may be actually worth $100 million. That genre definitely does need to be saved and preserved.

Billy Collins, thank you very much for your time this morning. Good luck with the book, we appreciate it. Take care.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com