Re: ethnic writers
Why do I find reading through an issue of Poetry magazine painful and
> reading through the collected works of Creeley exciting?
Because it works for you and extends your understanding of what ‘poetry’ is might be an answer.
Tilla’s twopence
On 25/8/05 2:36 pm, "Robert Heffernan" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> To those who feel there is no such thing as "good writing" or "bad
> writing" I have a (genuine) question to ask.
>
> What is the function of the poet if all writing is of equal merit?
> Why should I, or anyone else, bother to write? I've always thought
> that the role of the innovative poet is to improve the art. Am I
> wrong? What does it mean to "improve" if there is no way one can
> measure such improvement?
>
> Why do I find reading through an issue of Poetry magazine painful and
> reading through the collected works of Creeley exciting?
>
> Bob
> (A young poet who feels that the current climate of "no good, no bad,
> just writing" has made it difficult to know where to start in his
> art.)
>
> p.s. - Yet again I sent this to Mairead first before realising I
> should have sent it to the list. Sorry Mairead.
> On 8/25/05, mairead byrne <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I like what you say here Rupert, and what you relate of Joe Sheerin.
>> My understanding of poetry and writing has changed greatly over time.
>> I certainly appreciate: "there is no such thing as good writing and
>> bad writing - there's writing." Thanks for the imagination and soul
>> you bring to discussion.
>> Mairead
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On 8/24/05, mallin1 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>>> I'm sorry Geraldine and others if my allotment analogy to poetry/poets
>>> offended or upset but--
>>>
>>> Greens have the slogan - dig where you stand (which I think is kin to some
>>> poets). Truth is, 'dig where you stand' either elevates the digger or buries
>>> the digger (in the grave dug). Poetry as individual on high is that
>>> problematic. You can't do that on an allotment: what you perceive as your
>>> individuality is its dialectic opposite. The richer each element of the
>>> tapestry, the richer the whole.
>>>
>>> I know I sound crass but - an Irish teacher and poet, way back in the early
>>> 1970s, was my mentor. We were at some folk club in an overspill town and Joe
>>> Sheerin turned to me (me, headlong into Hart Crane and The Beats), and said:
>>> "there is no such thing as good writing and bad writing - there's writing."
>>>
>>> I kicked like a mule then - I've kicked like a mule these years hence - for
>>> surely there is 'arbitration' - there's a cannon, there are university
>>> certificates, there are great poets arbitrating, there's a poetry God to say
>>> what's 'good' and what's 'bad!'
>>>
>>> No. Joe was/is right: there is writing. Just writing.
>>>
>>> I'd like to know how you arbitrate over 'good' and 'bad' writing?
>>>
>>> Until 1990 Shelley's 'Peterloo Writings' of 1820 were not published in
>>> Britain. Editors of his work would not publish 'Mask of Anarchy' or his
>>> polemic prose. The poetry/publishing world split Percey Byshe into two
>>> people: the intellectual of 'Queen Mab' and 'Prometheus Unbound' and the
>>> "juvenile" who extended Thomas Paine's writings - who was thereby, in my
>>> view, the bridge between Blake, Chartism and Marx.
>>>
>>> ***
>>>
>>> As said, what are your criteria?
>>>
>>>
>>> Rupert
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
