A New Anthology from New Binary, and the death of poetry

I finally got my contributor’s copy of New Binary Press’s first Anthology, which contains, among other poems, several from me, several from fellow Washington poets Annette Spaulding-Convy and Kathleen Flenniken, and an array of Irish poets that it was a pleasure to read. I recommend it! I’m always interested in international anthologies, even if this one wasn’t be published by my third book’s publisher! Here’s a little picture, courtesy of my mother’s cell phone.

Also, a short retort to all the hullabaloo about the death of poetry. What I’ve noticed is, most people these days can barely read, and when they want to read, they want something wish-fulfillment-y and unchallenging. Poetry makes you work, and thus, is described as “hard.”
Which is not one whit different from any other time in history, except people who don’t want to read have a range of other options to entertain themselves with.  And poetry these days doesn’t always rhyme, which always seems to surprise people (one of the complaints about the inaugural poem) though the prose poem came around in the late 1890’s, and the Modernists – starting in the 1920s – really brought that whole “no rhyme” thing into fashion. Like, eighty years ago. Get with the trends, people!
So, in summation: poetry is no more dead than it has ever been, unless you count back in ancient times, when poets were the substitute for newspapers, movies, and rock concerts.