I take a latitudinarian position on this. There are all sorts of poets writing all sorts of different poetry. Time will sift them out. This is certainly true: "Following rules for the sake of rules leads to a dead art. It produces art that is nostalgic and ritualistic–full of formal artifice, but lacking in any real meaning." One reason to learn the rules is that you can never be sure just when you may need them. The real problem with poetry today is the need people writing it have for recognition. If anything ought to to be done solely for its own sake, it is poetry. It should be a vocation, not a profession.The jockeying for prizes and grants that goes on in poetry circles these days is unbecoming.
"The jockeying for prizes and grants that goes on in poetry circles these days is unbecoming."
ReplyDeleteWell, it's ugly, but it keeps 'em off the streets.
Running in circles chasing prizes and grants seems to be what most of them think the job is, right? Entertaining an audience? Surely, that's not the job.
Being remembered forever for winning the 'See, I'm a great poet, Prize' .. Now THAT is motivation. And the extra cash will help defray the cost of that MFA. Thank God.
-blue
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"Down on Telegraph Avenue I watched a disheveled old woman wearing red tennis shoes, holding a chapbook open with one hand while waving the other at businessmen passing by, screaming obscenities about some guy named Cheney. Sounded like poetry to me."