Where Have All The Poets Gone?

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poetinahat

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By Jove, I think he's got it
 

Kylabelle

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2:00 am thought, take it or leave it.

What if we really know poetry is something sort of holy, like fire, and so we dance around the outer edges of it always, not sure we should call ourselves POETS, not ever at ease with the stuff, not liking it (burns!) (bores!), having to keep it at a distance, scoffing at it, wishing it were not there, unable to avoid it (some of us), holding it to impossible standards, almost meeting those standards (some of us), and then what...?

:gaah
 

KTC

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I feel like there was a rousing rendition of Kumbaya played out here while I slept. Okay, Kumbaya with projectiles being thrown during the chorus. Or some such thing. Love lifts us up where we belong, don't it.
 

Kylabelle

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Or drops us down.
 

KTC

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I'm suddenly inspired to scream, "Drop the needle!"
 

William Haskins

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2:00 am thought, take it or leave it.

What if we really know poetry is something sort of holy, like fire, and so we dance around the outer edges of it always, not sure we should call ourselves POETS, not ever at ease with the stuff, not liking it (burns!) (bores!), having to keep it at a distance, scoffing at it, wishing it were not there, unable to avoid it (some of us), holding it to impossible standards, almost meeting those standards (some of us), and then what...?

:gaah

it's interesting. poetry has been a major part of my life, and i do believe that it has the ability, at its best, to impact human consciousness in a rare and significant way, and that it has contributed to human intellectual evolution in how it fosters and expands the capacity for abstract thought through metaphor and other connections and awakenings unique to it.

but another part of me wants it to be demystified, accessible and user-friendly, to use a horrible (but apt) buzzphrase.

these are sometimes conflicting, sometimes complementary, goals that continue to shape my work .
 
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Kylabelle

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William, I want that too: both the sublime lofty part, and the down-to-earth, everybody-gets-it part.

Well, IMO, that's what we reach for, not in every poem but generally, and it's a dynamic that never comes to rest, even though there's nothing inherent in the reach that has to be contradictory....

And I maybe should not say "we".
 

C.bronco

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I got back into poetry as a function of free time. I've had difficulty finding the time to read or write novels or even short stories lately. But I can read several poems or write a single poem in a much smaller fragment of time.

It's weird and interesting that as our culture has moved increasingly toward shorter attention spans and bite-sized media, the shorter forms of literature — short stories and poetry — have declined while the novel has prospered.
It just hasn't been presented properly to the masses.
They are still remembering scanning lines in high school (or, sadly, have no recollection of it.,?) and don't see it as a modern entity.


I think most think of poetry as an Elizabethan thing they did not understand, or a sappy greeting card, and have no idea that Raymond Carver wrote, or that Bukowski existed.
 

C.bronco

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2:00 am thought, take it or leave it.

What if we really know poetry is something sort of holy, like fire, and so we dance around the outer edges of it always, not sure we should call ourselves POETS, not ever at ease with the stuff, not liking it (burns!) (bores!), having to keep it at a distance, scoffing at it, wishing it were not there, unable to avoid it (some of us), holding it to impossible standards, almost meeting those standards (some of us), and then what...?

:gaah
I just
truly love what you wrote Kylabelle.


I believe that a poem is a postcard from our lives; a look at a small thing which was really big, or some observation that makes another gasp in recognition.


I don't understand why poetry isn't important to more people. I've been criticized for choosing an English major when I was in college,
but literature and poetry are a study of human existance. I don't see it as irrelevant or unimportant.
 

Kylabelle

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No, that was me. I killed it.

:D
 

Magdalen

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2:00 am thought, take it or leave it.

What if we really know poetry is something sort of holy, like fire, and so we dance around the outer edges of it always, not sure we should call ourselves POETS, not ever at ease with the stuff, not liking it (burns!) (bores!), having to keep it at a distance, scoffing at it, wishing it were not there, unable to avoid it (some of us), holding it to impossible standards, almost meeting those standards (some of us), and then what...?

:gaah

I just
truly love what you wrote Kylabelle.


I believe that a poem is a postcard from our lives; a look at a small thing which was really big, or some observation that makes another gasp in recognition.


I don't understand why poetry isn't important to more people. I've been criticized for choosing an English major when I was in college,
but literature and poetry are a study of human existance. I don't see it as irrelevant or unimportant.

Love this thread. I read/forgot & linky (hat tip to Kylbl) this thread for a week now. I've enjoyed reading it.

I think the same thing 24 hrs a day. That poetry is kind of sacred, holy, certainly I think good poetry touches a very deep and personal part that certainly seems worthy of "worship" or at least casual respect. The postcard analogy is apt, and this goes back to the OP - whether one feels as if the postcard is being received or sent. !

And I know goddamn well that really sublime (& even other kinds of) poetry is proof, in a way - proof and sort of like exercise of - the soul, the spirit, that extra thing (or in between) that makes me sure that there's more to life than lifespan.


And my dog really likes my poetry.
 
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Kylabelle

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Well, don't thank me, thank Haskins who started it. Glad you chimed in.

And you have a smart dog. :D
 

kurt behm

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We no longer live in a country ...

of shared values. Unlike the 'melting pot' of the early twentieth century, modern day America is an ever growing conglomeration of special interest ethnic and national groups.

Poetry used to, and still should, cross all these cultural and religious dividing lines, but alas, it seems to be failing.

It's very hard to be a Poet in a society overwhelmingly fixated on political correctness.

Experience and observation used to be the great teachers from which Poets were born. Today the sound bite and informercial seem to rule
supreme, with the average person's attention span getting shorter and shorter.

Like all artists, it remains the Poet's responsibility to write about this great and increasing emotional and intellectual chasm in American life. It's just much harder to get anyone to read about it.

KPB
 

C.bronco

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http://www.npr.org/2014/09/05/344088108/where-have-all-the-poets-gone

thought i'd open this up to the roundtable...

does poetry matter anymore?

is anyone writing anything important or provocative anymore?

do prose writers even care about poetry?

does my ass look fat in these jeans?

William, your jeans look fine.


Also, poetry is one of the best forms of thought, and I can't imagine why, with all of the amazing stuff I have seen out there in the last several years, that it isn't given its just respect and marketability.
 

C.bronco

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2:00 am thought, take it or leave it.

What if we really know poetry is something sort of holy, like fire, and so we dance around the outer edges of it always, not sure we should call ourselves POETS, not ever at ease with the stuff, not liking it (burns!) (bores!), having to keep it at a distance, scoffing at it, wishing it were not there, unable to avoid it (some of us), holding it to impossible standards, almost meeting those standards (some of us), and then what...?

:gaah

I still love this. Can I quote you to a friend?
 

Filigree

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Hmm. Maybe, Kurt. I think you might still be looking in dusty old places.

Poetry is like water, shifting physical states, going underground, and springing up again to drive new life. Poetry is like fire, a shapeshifter. Poetry becomes song lyrics (every Rush song Neal Peart ever wrote), it becomes democratically available through the internet in poetry forums, it lounges in dive bars and sizzles on stages in poetry slams. Poetry slinks into prose as a flavor.

I love poetry. For me, it's the ultimate, distilled verbal art form. But I wasn't good enough to sell it in traditional poetry venues, and I felt alienated there. Almost by accident, I began putting my original poems into museum-grade book arts sculptures I made out of carved wood, leather, embroidered fabric, and beads. Fifteen years later, my poems are in the special collections libraries of twelve major US universities and logged in WorldCat.org. I've also been paid a lot more per poem than many 'traditional' poets get out of small-press chapbook or magazine sales. Nor have I ever paid to be published, which seems to happen to a lot of poets who tire of fighting the small-press chapbook routine.

We can obey the 'responsibility' while reaching new markets and new fans.
 
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kurt behm

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Without the reader ...

the ink never really dries. Like the old Philosophy 101 axiom 'If a tree fell in the forest and no one was there to hear it, did it make a sound?'

Of course it made a sound … BUT SO WHAT!

Dusty old or shiny new …


"Written in the moment
… and placed in its time (reader)

The explosion of an instant
… forever to rhyme"
 
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