>>To change the subject a bit...we gotta bring respectability back to poetry! We gotta make people care about poetry again. C'mon, we can do it!<<
Ra, ra, ra!
>>I've read a bit of your poetry, it's good stuff. It's certainly more readable and enjoyable than a lot of the garbage out there.<<
Thank you! I hear that a lot, actually, and I know a handful of other poets who have similar experiences.
The aspects of good poetry include: * It should be clear and understandable. Most modern poetry is muddy and purposely obscured. Mystery and mud are not the same. * It should use charming language. Something in it should tickle one's brain, feel good in the mouth, sound good in the ears. Poetry is like linguistic origami. Much modern poetry does not take advantage of this; it tends to go clunk. * It should feature an interesting topic: either something familiar made fresh and interesting, or something new introduced in a compelling way. Much modern poetry chooses overly personal or abstract topics that do not resonate easily with readers.
The number of people who enjoy obscurist poetry is small, and when obscurist poetry is presented to most people and hailed as Great Stuff, a majority of students yawn their way through it and avoid poetry forevermore thinking that's all there is. It's not.
>>If we can get readers to realise that poetry can be readable, accessible, and even enjoyable, maybe we can bring back some of poetry's lost respectability.<<
When I wrote curricula for adult remedial education in prison classes, most of our students were black or Hispanic. I hauled out poems by my favorite black and Hispanic authors, among others, and assigned those. The guys were hooked -- they had never seen anything like that, had not realized that poetry could be about things they cared about. I said, you want to write poetry about how to hotwire a car? Fine, write what you know, but you better get the details AND the form right.
We averaged one or two total converts per class. I'm still proud of that.
>>(I'm no fan of much of the modern poetry out there, so I understand why people may not care much for or about poetry nowadays. If they only understood the beauty of good poetry...)<<
This is why I'm in favor of things like free broadsides. My fishbowl deliberately includes making a lot of poetry publically visible. I've also toyed with the idea of putting on my bellydance garb and writing poetry on my body.
Re: Well...
Ra, ra, ra!
>>I've read a bit of your poetry, it's good stuff. It's certainly more readable and enjoyable than a lot of the garbage out there.<<
Thank you! I hear that a lot, actually, and I know a handful of other poets who have similar experiences.
The aspects of good poetry include:
* It should be clear and understandable. Most modern poetry is muddy and purposely obscured. Mystery and mud are not the same.
* It should use charming language. Something in it should tickle one's brain, feel good in the mouth, sound good in the ears. Poetry is like linguistic origami. Much modern poetry does not take advantage of this; it tends to go clunk.
* It should feature an interesting topic: either something familiar made fresh and interesting, or something new introduced in a compelling way. Much modern poetry chooses overly personal or abstract topics that do not resonate easily with readers.
The number of people who enjoy obscurist poetry is small, and when obscurist poetry is presented to most people and hailed as Great Stuff, a majority of students yawn their way through it and avoid poetry forevermore thinking that's all there is. It's not.
>>If we can get readers to realise that poetry can be readable, accessible, and even enjoyable, maybe we can bring back some of poetry's lost respectability.<<
When I wrote curricula for adult remedial education in prison classes, most of our students were black or Hispanic. I hauled out poems by my favorite black and Hispanic authors, among others, and assigned those. The guys were hooked -- they had never seen anything like that, had not realized that poetry could be about things they cared about. I said, you want to write poetry about how to hotwire a car? Fine, write what you know, but you better get the details AND the form right.
We averaged one or two total converts per class. I'm still proud of that.
>>(I'm no fan of much of the modern poetry out there, so I understand why people may not care much for or about poetry nowadays. If they only understood the beauty of good poetry...)<<
This is why I'm in favor of things like free broadsides. My fishbowl deliberately includes making a lot of poetry publically visible. I've also toyed with the idea of putting on my bellydance garb and writing poetry on my body.