Jill Jones started out by saying:
> Most PhDs I know can't (don't, won't?) read poetry at all (my SO
> excepted - but she taught poetry to primary school kids and had a ball
> wit it). Maybe I know the wrong PhDs.
Well, a PhD today ain't what it used to be, in Oz anyway. It seems all
education has been dumbed down: a BA is equivalent to Year 13 at high
school; an MA is what a BA was before; and a PhD is yesterday's MA.
I speak only from an Australian perspective, and, perhaps, from a Humanities
pov.
PhDs that are creatively based are going through a hard time of it because
the 'system' (ie the academic hierarchy) is still sorting out its stance
toward their creative/academic components. So 'accessibility' to higher
education is another issue.
Accessibility in poetry for me goes like this: _something_ must come through
the first time for the reader to bother reading it a second time; further
and deeper exchanges must happen for the reader to keep reading it on
various occasions; finally, if the reader has exhausted all they can from
the poem, then they will stop reading it for 'exchange' and perhaps just
read it or remember it for the pleasures it gave them. I think of 'Fern
Hill' by Dylan Thomas. What attracted me the first time was the sheer music
of the sentences, the rich rhetoric. The next time I noticed the poem
developed from birth to death, and the farm's seasons where images of this.
Then I noticed the paraphrasing of various biblical quotes, and the symbolic
use of the farm's cycle for the human lifecycle. Then I followed the colour
'green' and saw how cleverly Dylan T had used it from 'new born' green to
death's decay 'green'. Now I only read the poem when I want to teach a class
to look beneath the surface of seemingly difficult poems.
& I've crapped on long enuff. G'day to you all.
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jill Jones" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2006 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: Accessibility
> On Sunday, March 26, 2006, at 12:49 PM, Andrew Burke wrote:
>
> > Huh. I can assure you that at the end of a PhD all you want to read is
> > the
> > simplest of lyrics, peaceful works that please the senses.
>
> Hi Andrew,
>
> Most PhDs I know can't (don't, won't?) read poetry at all (my SO
> excepted - but she taught poetry to primary school kids and had a ball
> wit it). Maybe I know the wrong PhDs.
>
> In my own experience, I've found that it's usually folks without
> letters after their names that happily approach poetry without worrying
> too much about 'accessibility' (silly word- what does it really mean? -
> hmm). They may ask questions that go to 'meaning', for sure, but don't
> get caught up in it, or not to my face. I'm thinking of, for instance,
> one of my neighbours. She's reading one of my books, a poem a day,
> doesn't bother me about it but chats to others about each poem (I'm
> told this very reliably). She's older and wiser than me, hasn't got one
> letter after her name.
>
> What *could* a PhD offer the poetry reader? I don't have one, so I've
> no idea.
>
> Cheers,
> Jill
>
>
> _______________________________________________________
> Jill Jones
>
> Latest books:
> Broken/Open. Available from Salt Publishing
> http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/1844710416.htm
>
> Where the Sea Burns. Wagtail Series. Picaro Press
> PO Box 853, Warners Bay, NSW, 2282. [log in to unmask]
>
> Struggle and radiance: ten commentaries (Wild Honey Press)
> http://www.wildhoneypress.com
>
> web site: http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones
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> blog2: Latitudes http://itudes.blogspot.com/
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