America's Top Poets To Offer Diffusion Lines
Stylish, Yet Accessible
Responding to Concern That Lines Be "Wearable"
April 1, 2014 (New York)
Three of America's most famous poets announced today the immediate availability
of new, moderately priced "diffusion lines" based on their celebrated
high-end works to be sold online and at mainstream retail outlets such as
Walmart, Costco, Sam's, Target, and Barnes & Noble. Representatives of K2 by Kay Ryan, Frederick by
Frederick Seidel, and JohnT by John
Ashbery (for Target) announced the move at a joint news conference on the
sidewalk outside of Century 21 in
lower Manhattan.
In recent years diffusion
lines from haute couture designers
such as Marc by Marc Jacobs and D & G by Dolce and Gabbana have
transformed the fashion world, bringing hot trends and sophisticated tastes to
previously untapped markets in return for an infusion of cash, as consumers
have snapped up big name merchandise that may be lower in quality but is sold
at a correspondingly lower price.
Publishers and industry experts hope diffusion lines from poets as
famous as Ryan, Seidel, and Ashbery may provide the long-sought bridge to a
thriving commercial market for poetry by living authors.
According to a spokesperson,
K2 by Kay Ryan, named for the
second-highest mountain in the world, will offer "poems for the woman who
aspires," in "lines that fit every body." K2
by Kay Ryan verse lines will be longer than those in the poet's signature
style, which has featured corsetted rhyme schemes and model-thin silhouettes
that barely leave the left-hand margin. Ryan's diffusion lines will be "cut for
comfort," yet still "feel
skinny," with considerable sonic density up front and much care taken to
avoid any embarrassing emphasis on assonance.
Of the poet's penchant for snap-shut closures, her spokesperson
remarked, "Readers will still be able to hear that a K2 by Kay Ryan poem is finished, but this new line will appeal to a
more open-ended sensibility."
Frederick Seidel himself
spoke on behalf of his new diffusion line, touting Frederick by Frederick Seidel as "wearable lines that bring
venom in denim." Seidel explained that poems in the initial Frederick by Frederick Seidel collection
will feature shorter lengths for spring and a few scantier numbers for Fire
Island and the Hamptons. Allusions and
phrases in French and Latin will be sparse.
But Seidel insisted that Frederick
by Frederick Seidel is "all about the fabric," and that his diffusion
line will convey the Uptown, Ivy-inflected sensibility he made famous in his
path-breaking use of deep but invisible pockets, as in the swatch below:
In
Radcliffe Yard, when double-breasted
Coeds
hitched plaid skirts for crab-infested
Offensive
lineman, I was offended.
Go, Crimson, Go!
How
does a goal-line stand if knees are bended?
The
gun sounds but the Game has never ended.
All proceeds from Frederick by Frederick Seidel will be
directed to Frederick Seidel.
A Target spokesperson
introduced JohnT by John Ashbery (for
Target) as the first-ever collaboration of a leading poet with a major
retailer. Critics are enthused by early-release samples of John T by John Ashbery (for Target), and several have proclaimed
that the work is indistinguishable from Ashbery's high-end poems as seen in Poetry, The New Yorker, and other ritzy venues. John T by John Ashbery (for Target) displays will be placed in the
Pharmacy waiting rooms in all Target stores (except in Canada), where Target
hopes it can keep the aging readership of the avant-garde poet in store just a
few minutes longer. "If they pick
up one or two pieces from the line on their way to grab Ensure," said the Target spokesperson, "we'll be
delighted." The giant retail chain
is celebrating the new line by broadcasting a jaunty passage from JohnT by John Ashbery (for Target), read
by the poet, to shoppers over in-store public address systems and on a special
wireless channel. The passage is
available for sampling at JohnTbyJohnAshbery(for
Target).com:
Good
day, Target shoppers! It's nothing
personal
that
the pattern on the China in aisle 9
portends
the disaster of tomorrow's
oatmeal. Is your life salty enough?
Not mine. On the flats at Bonneville
Not mine. On the flats at Bonneville
Mach
4 was made on a rocket sled
controlled
by a thumbpad and the blur-fast thumbs
of
a little Dutch boy who gets it. Bye bye!
