This is from Stephen King's On Writing. Preluding the following is a bit of gibberish poem.
"If you were to ask the poet what this poem meant, you'd likely get a look of contempt. A slightly uncomfortable silence was apt to emanate from the rest. Certainly the fact that the poet would likely have been unable to tell you anything about the mechanics of creation would not have been considered important. If pressed, he or she might have said that there were no mechanics, only that seminal spurt of feeling. [...] And if the resulting poem is sloppy, based on the assumption that such general words as 'loneliness' mean the same thing to all of us - hey man, so what, let go of all that outdated bullshit and just dig the heaviness."
Ian said:
"So much of it echoed the pretentious, abstract, obscure-reference "artiste" poetry that came into vogue in the late nineties or so. I can't relate to poems like that, and think they do more to alienate readers than any other form possible."
Yes indeed sirs, not much poetry I have read lately squares up to older works I have studied. Maybe that makes me pretentious and snobby too. Using the American Poetry Society link as a reference, I keep feeling like I am looking at a Jackson Pollack painting. It seems needlessly incoherent and without structure.
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3 comments:
I blushed over who I was quoted underneath. I don't think I've ever been in finer company.
All hope is not lost, though. In addition to Espada, whom I talked about previously, look up Katha Pollitt. In addition to being a writer for The Nation, she's a fantastic poet. Often (but not always) very coherent.
http://www.poetsagainstthewar.org/displaypoem.asp?AuthorID=987
I'll admit that I came into contact with Espada and Pollitt at the same time: listening to a Poets Against The War poetry reading.
Well while I agree that both poets you listed are good (I liked them, it what I mean), both published their first poems in the early 80's, and then we're right back to my first post. How does a poet become recognized today? It used to be that you could send your work to a publishing company and have them accept you - that was the way to get your name out. Now, all you have to do is post your work online. Done and done, thousands of people can see your work.
It's kind of hard to dig through all the blogs and LiveJournals and MySpaces filled with crappy emo poetry and actually find anything worthwhile.
It's upsetting, when you think about it.
-Lii
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