I see more & more ramification away from poetry's historic "main stem." An extreme pluralism of poetic constituencies. (The old dichotomy of mainstream vs. avant garde invalidated completely.) The question is whether these "poetries" will become increasingly divisive or wonderfully multiflorous. I wish for the latter. I'm still naive enuf to want to believe in the somewhat discredited notion of an American melting pot, or rather a Mulligan Stew--with all the individual tastes extant. A stew created/cooked up not through central cultural dominance or forced assimilation--& here I'm speaking of aesthetics rather than ethnicity-- but as a positive process. (Forgive this mishmash of mixed metaphor--maybe this is unconscious mimetic fallacy--now I'm back to the botanical.) A process that strengthens each individual branch--that strengthening being the result of ongoing resistance to other poetries and the natural competition to be heard. Finnegan [end of message ... text also available at <url:http://www.reference.com/cgi-bin/pn/go?choice=message&table=05_1997&mid=2193870&hilit=CULTURAL+FUTURE> ] -------------------------------- Article-ID: 05_1997&2193662 Score: 78 Subject: 8.713, FYI: Lakehead University Summer Institute