Answering A Question About Spoonful

In my comment section, Ian Thal, a Spoonful contributor, asked: "It sounds like there may be an appetite for a print edition of issue #0-- why not do both? The website announces the scene to the rest of the world, the print edition is for the people who are local." I'd like to answer that properly here, as he raises a good point and repeats a frequently asked question.

Right now the main reason Spoonful is online and not on paper is money. Right now, there's no way to get such a project done without taking it out of my pocket.

All of my energy is being used to fill Stone Soup's seats and make sure our rent is paid. Bill Perrault has his archive project. Everyone else peripherally involved with Stone Soup, well, just wants a print journal to appear.

I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings. And I'm certainly not trying to upset any of my contributors (especially the older, more skeptical Stone Soup scenesters, who were still open and willing to send me work and seem to like how their work looks). I'm just trying to point out a certain mindset that even I had as a poet before I started helping out with Stone Soup back in 2005.

If we were to do a print journal now, it would have a print run more or less limited to its contributors. It baffles me that even bigger names in the Boston scene seem only interested participating in vanity projects and don't even seem to entertain the idea of getting the work in front of other people's eyes--non poets, say. If the general public's interest in poetry is the metaphorical equivalent of someone dangling off a cliff with one hand, I picture most poets in our scene stamping down on that hand. The fact that we've even had non-poets come in to Stone Soup as of late is not only a pleasure but, I think, important and necessary if Stone Soup and the Out of The Blue gallery is going to survive.

One of my many hopes with the online journal is to generate further interest in Stone Soup and hopefully have other people become involved with the weekly readings. Once that happens, I (or hopefully we) can set new, more ambitious goals. I've had one or two people express interest in editing and/or help with a print version. And if we ever do a print version, I would even be more interested in what Diana E. Saenz is doing: producing a print journal of Boston Poet with content separate from her website, giving our contributors a chance for more of their work to get out there.

Two years ago, Stone Soup couldn't even pay rent, and they continued to meet mostly due to the kindness of Deb Priestly. Today, Stone Soup pays a monthly amount set by the kind people at Out of The Blue, which we have barely met some months, only because we don't pay the features. It seems even other poets (not all, but some) regard poetry as not worth paying a few bucks a week to sustain--but they want a print journal. Hopefully we can move beyond that and get to the best of both worlds--print and online exposure--eventually and sensibly.

Thanks for motivating me to write this, Ian, and thanks for your contribution.