I've become interested lately, as apart from being excruciatingly aware, of
the laziness of poetry. Poetry, as an art, along with elements of visual
arts, has become a last refuge of the bone-idle, at least, if you write a
novel, or a play, you have to put your back into it, it takes work, poetry,
although, because of its extremely primitive basics, can be like a
five-minute-fix. This is not to say the withering and murderous demands that
poetry as an art does exact, but there's kind of fuzzy notion arounmd that
anyone can write poetry. No they can't, and what's more most poets most
can't write it either (to order), or to acceptance. It comes when the gods
say, and with an awful lot in the background support. This may sound rather
elitist, it is, it also is very democratic: anyone can do, but most can't.
The worst thing of all is the proliferation of banality posing as poetry, it
killls the art.
i get so tired of hearing people who are totally ignorant of the least bit
of metrics (you have to know the rules in order to break them - that's what
I do) or the provenance of words droning on in my ear. a friend of mine who
is keen amateur singer, this just as a chorister in a provincial city's
classical choir, has to do one full and one semi-rhearsal twice a week, plus
other bits of practice, twice a week plus, just to be in the background in
a performance. Most people I know who think they're poets look at you as if
the boat's gone out if you say 'catalexis' or 'caesura' or even
'enjambement' to them. Not to mention 'tonic' and sub-tonic' stress or , God
help us, 'anacrusis'.
One guy I know, who thinks he's a poet, told me recently he went on a course
where he learnt about technique - it was called 'iambic pentameter'.
Lord have mercy.
Best
Dave
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