‘I go into schools to do poetry workshops/readings. Everyone’s very keen on poetry in schools. It’s part of the curriculum in my state (though less than it used to be) and teenagers still write it (and SMS each other small poems — usually doggerel, often obscene) and some teachers still love it. During the course of question time someone always asks how much money I make (and I think, “If I was making a lot of money, would I be here?”) but I say, “Put up your hand if you’ve bought a music CD or a book of poems this year.” A forest of hands goes up. “Keep your hand up if you bought poetry.” A forest falls. There are a few stragglers left. Then I say (being an Australian poet), “Keep your hand up if the book of poetry you bought was by a living Australian poet.” Ah, clear felled. Almost always. Then I say to them: “What was the question again?” ‘ – Chris Mansell on the difficulties of publishing poetry, online at poetry.about.com, 14th September, 2005.