Some Volumes of Poetry:
A Rertospective of the Publication Work
of Karl Young

This year's installment is being developed in parts, as is the rest of this issue of Big Bridge.

Its entries sketch some of the many practical values of art and of activities associated with producing books and the literary life of our times. It seems appropriate to take this approach in an issue of Big Bridge with large parts (some essentially issues in themselves) devoted to New Orleans, and one appearing at a time of the worst economic since the Great Depression of the 1930s. The entries in the series counter the incredibly shallow notion that art is a frivolous luxury that can be most easily dispensed with in times of economic collapse. No one rebuilds discarded cities like artists. They continue to do this even though the cities they restore value to get stolen from them. At a time of ecological stress and problems brought on by dependence on petroleum and other multi-tiered forms of energy waste, a return to cities itself may be part of the solution to some of the practical problems of the present time. The abilities of art to ease or solve or bring to light problems of people living anywhere, though in some instances, particularly in cities, should not be overlooked in the process.

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