I agree with Lynda, and with Kasper too, that there does seem to be a vogue
for the anecdotal in much currently-published poetry. And a lot of people do
seem to enjoy reading it, too -- they find it approachable and
audience-friendly. But we don't have to do it ourselves if we don't think
it's worth the effort. (On the other hand, look what Robert Frost could do
with the anecdote.)
There are serious poems on serious subjects being written and published,
world-wide. But I'm not convinced that very many of them appear in small
mags, in the UK at least. I've a friend who's an accomplished poet, now at
work on her second collection. She bemoans the fact that the better she
feels her work becomes, the fewer places there are that she cares to submit
it to. Part of this is due to poetry's financial situation, which has meant
the closure of some reputable and long-running magazines. And the really
top-notch ones can take a bit of breaking into.
This hasn't answered Lynda's question "what is poetry", with that very
relevant rider "these days". Perhaps it varies from poet to poet and reader
to reader? Kasper won't like that, I daresay, and I don't think I do either.
But it's a question that's always being asked, and there's never really been
a satisfactory answer, notwithstanding all those neat definitions people
will probably come up with!
joanna
----- Original Message -----
From: "kasper salonen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2007 2:33 PM
Subject: Re: What is poetry?
> of course it's in question, I'm all about impressions because I don't
> have the facts or the scope.
> _I_ personally don't bury my head in tradition, as concerns my own
> work. I haven't been active at all in searching out current poetry to
> determine its state, but what I have seen in occasional small journals
> & newspapers (the Independent for one) I have disliked more often than
> liked. I get a _picture_ of a tendency for the unremarkable, is all
> I'm saying.
>
> KS
>
> On 25/08/07, Bob Marcacci <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> your lack of scope here is dangerous, kaspers... based on what i've read
>> of
>> your insights into poetry, your opinions on the quality with a capital
>> queue
>> of contemporary verse could be in question...
>>
>> i want to know what's working... it's relatively easy to see what's
>> not...
>> it's also easy to bury your head in the sands of tradition, but then
>> what...
>> perhaps, then, we write our way out from the great dunes that possibly
>> bury
>> some of us...
>>
>> --
>> Bob Marcacci
>>
>> The tendency of an event to occur varies inversely with
>> one's preparation for it.
>> - David Searles
>>
>>
>>
>> > From: kasper salonen <[log in to unmask]>
>> > Reply-To: "Poetryetc: poetry and poetics" <[log in to unmask]>
>> > Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 12:13:15 +0300
>> > To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> > Subject: Re: What is poetry?
>> >
>> > freeverse has
>> > taken over & eroded Quality to the extent that now any even mildly
>> > insightful-seeming prose cut into lines appears to gain accolades &
>> > sales.
>>
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