Jim,
Please expand on what you mean by poemy poems - the term is quite
lovely, in fact I think I've used it myself in the past.
My idea of a poemy poem is one that is full of the kinds of phrasing,
tones and vocabulary that are expected by a reader fed on a diet of
similar stuff - a mix of elegiac mood and realistic detail on a
familiar experience, usually with a wise little twist at the end to
'startle' the reader with the poet's 'unique' insight (usually of
course it's not an insight at all, just a particular ordering of the
words to make it look that way - a language accident pretending to be
original thought, etc.)
Now maybe your idea of a poemy poem is simply one that isn't in your
list below, one that looks like any other poem until you read it. I'm
saying this because over the past 10 years I've encountered an
increasing prejudice against poems that look like ordinary poems from
people who think that just because something is visual, sound,
interactive, conceptual or whatever then it's the dog's bollocks -
which of course is bollocks proper. It has been the excuse for masses
of trivial crap passed off as innovation etc - often it is the poorest
of 'poemy poems' given a bit of a makeover on the computer or placed
within some pointless interactive project. Most of these people don't
read poetry and yet think they know all about it. Those of us who
actually write and read poetry are often stuck in no-man's land
between the two cool extremes of cliched performance poetry on one
side and the arty framing on the other.
OK, rant over. Now comes the qualifier - I am not against any of the
types of poetry you mention below, though I do think two of them
(interactive and conceptual) are particularly open to abuse - there,
I've qualified my qualification. I have always been an enthusiast for
visual and concrete poetry and still am - but I am as fussy and picky
over what I think is good in them as I am with ordinary poetry.
Tim A.
On 29 Aug 2010, at 22:01, Jim Andrews wrote:
>>> Why should poemy poems be utterly primary in the notion of poetry?
>>> Try that for thirty years and see if yer still awake. There's more
>>> happening in language and art than that approach.
>
>> Jim, that’s like asking why should words be utterly primary in
>> writing novels.
>
> poemy poems are not the beginning and end of poetry. there's visual
> poetry, sound poetry, interactive poetry, conceptual poetry, and so
> on. these types of poetry usually aren't concerned with the poemy
> poem.
>
> ja
> http://vispo.com
|