Well stated and fair, if high-level, treatment of the contemporary poetry scene. Of course each group could be sliced & diced into many sub-groupings.
It made me think there may be a fourth clan: Amateur poets. Largely self-involved and little interested in poetry beyond their own writings, which are often memoir vignettes broken into baldly poetic lines. Often self-publishing and ready to read at any local open mike or poetry club that will allow them to hold forth. Probably larger by numbers than any of the other three groups individually or combined.
One other observation: Even the 'mainstream', except for perhaps a handful 'break-out' stars, is nearly invisible in the larger contemporary cultural environment dominated by popular music, movies and television, social media, etc.
Finnegan
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Date:
Fri, 24 Jul 2015 14:47:54 +0100
From: Tim Allen <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
Re: Poetry On Trial: 2. “Poetry and Tribalism” by Jon Stone
Interesting essay
David - clear, well written and for the most part realistic yet optimistic. A
bit too neat maybe, the three tribes thing, or is it? There are some poetries
and individual poets that do not fit in with the three tribes notion - hi there
Peter! Going to read it again now.
Cheers
Tim A