Thanks to benefactor's thrift, poetry won't get short shrift

Font: In the international category are British poet Paul Farley and American writers Rodney Jones, Charles Wright and Frederick Seidel, who was a founding editor of The Paris Review and protegee of Ezra Pound.
"If you get into Seidel's work, you're into a different league altogether," said Griffin at the announcement yesterday morning at Le Select Bistro in Toronto.

"You'll probably have to do a bit of homework before you begin to understand what he's trying to do. ..

. It's very powerful stuff."
But while the short list does include some challenging and experimental writers like Seidel, it boasts others whose work is more accessible.

"Don McKay is very much a nature poet and he ties a lot of human emotion into it, too," said Griffin, "so he's someone that's very easy to start with."
When it comes to literary awards in this country, the Griffin may be relatively new on the scene, but it's quickly ascending the ranks in popularity, with poetry readings that have gone from small crowds of 150 in its first year to over 800 people at a sold-out event last year.
Its trustees include big-name authors like Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, and the awards ceremony itself rivals even the Gillers in glitz and glam -- perhaps something to do with the fact that Elana Rabinovitch, daughter of Giller prize founder Jack, happens to also be the publicist for the Griffin.

Still, poetry hardly gets centre stage at most bookstores, especially with the recent resurgence of non-fiction and memoirs. But this is something Griffin thinks will change in time.
"These things are cyclical," he said.

"Years ago, poetry was very much in the mainstream, everyone in school learned it, it was part of the curriculum. You could ask anyone to recite a poem and they'd be able to do it" -- for the record, Griffin can recite at least an hour of poetry off the top of his head at any given time.
"But recently, poetry has been very much at the back of the bus, sometimes not even on the bus at all," he added.

"It almost disappeared from the mainstream of our cultural lives, which is a tremendous shame. But I think it's coming back into fashion in literary
circles, and hopefully things like this prize raise awareness of the genre."
Part of the reason behind a wane in poetry sales might have something to do with its reputation of being inaccessible or heavy reading.

Yet, as Griffin points out, even if people buy just one of these books and read maybe a few poems every now and then, rereading the ones they like and skimming by the ones they don't, they might find it to be pleasantly engaging .
"I think that's the idea," he said. "If you get people to take a chance with some poetry, hopefully they'll get hooked and start saying, 'I remember that poet, he was on that short list, maybe I'll buy his new book.

' Poetry can be simple and easy to understand and still strike an emotional chord. And once you grab on to that, you can gradually move into more adventurous territory."
- The winners of the Griffin Prize will be announced on June 6.

All finalists will be reading at the MacMillan Theatre in Toronto the day before. More information can be found at griffinpoetryprize.com.

Ken Babstock, Airstream Land Yacht (House of Anansi Press) What the judges said "His is a poetry that sees through our errors and wishful thinking, a poetry that recognizes that 'it's what we think we saw that sticks, never what we see,' yet in a series of poems of formal and philosophical rigour, he is able to conclude that 'we should be held and forgiven.' " Don McKay, Strike/Slip (McClelland Stewart) What the judges said "A book of patience, courage and quiet eloquence, Strike/Slip manifests, like quartz, 'Some act of pure attention? simple, naked, perilously perfect.

' " Priscila Uppal, Ontological Necessities (Exile Editions) What the judges said " 'Who are you?' one of Priscila Uppal's poems keeps asking itself. Are you the oyster shell of the new millennium, the sundial waitress in her two-bit automobile with a licence to fish, the wristwatch of the nation, the woman's shelter of the soul?

The poems in Ontological Necessities are all that and much more."
Paul Farley, Tramp in Flames (Picador) What the judges said "What makes his work so remarkable is that, whatever his subject matter, from the city of Liverpool to an old Ovaltine tin, everything is transformed by his imagination and his formal gifts, making us think again about what we know, and what we think we know." Rodney Jones, Salvation Blues (Houghton Mifflin) What the judges said "His poems are angry, bawdy, funny, wise and deeply moving.

They sing to remind us of our humanity and to heal the language of its long service as a mere tool." Frederick Seidel, Ooga-Booga (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) What the judges said "Frederick Seidel's work reminds us that it is not poetry's job to reassure, to confirm expectations and habits of thought." Charles Wright, Scar Tissue (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) What the judges said "In his poems, the same old world we look at every day without seeing it, be it a tree in the yard, the bird in that tree, the branch swaying after the bird has flown, is the subject of endless interest.