Sheila Murphy wrote:
> Bob, one thing that has always interested me is HOW IMPORTANT (AS PERCEIVED)
> the consumer of the poem is.
>
> This is where trouble begins, as the fights break out.
>
> One perceives oneself in a given way that is not shared by others, and the
> poem becomes a vehicle (an instrument) for addressing the dispute. All of a
> sudden "What happened to the poem?"
>
>
I try to get at that problem by first trying to determine the value
(importance or effectiveness) of a given poem to a given consumer.
That's set, it seems to me. If I think some poem is terrific and no one
else does, it remains terrific for me. Yes, if I maladroitly try to get
others to agree with me--when I seem to say that the poem is terrific
for everyone because it's terrific for me (as I never mean to,
honest--although I wouldn't be human if I didn't wonder what was wrong
with everyone else), the trouble begins. I definitely will try to get
others to agree with my minority view, but the hope is that I will seem
to be trying to see what I see in the poem rather than forcing them to
accept the poem as terrific because *I* said so. Hard to do. Easy to
be perceived as not doing it when one is.
Easy, also, to to deny that evaluation can be meaningful while it goes
on with the lucky few getting grants and publication in BigTime
periodicals and (most important to me) discussion by visible critics,
and the rest of us tribble away here at New-Poetry and other Internet
poetry discussion groups.
--Bob
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