Divisions in poetry
Here's the thing:
There are different kinds of writing that go under the subject of poetry, just as there are different kinds of art, or music, or indeed any creative endeavour.
There are people who produce landscapes and portraits and still lives, as there always have been.
There are people who site-specific assemblages, video works, collages, sculptures, abstract works of all kinds.
Both kinds are 'artists'. Whether you like that particular form of art or not.
In music, we have Brahms and the fiddler James Hill, Bob Dylan and John Cage, S Club 7 and Harrison Birtwistle. They all make music whether you like that music or not.
Will all of it last? Will all of it be of lasting value? Some of it will, some of it won't. Some of it will last that you wish would not. Some of it won't that you wish could be brought back.
Same with poetry.
Rhyming poetry still exists. You just have to listen to half the adverts on television, or go to a performance poetry night.
Poetry influenced by modernism still exists. People still write it, still disseminate in the back rooms of pubs etc and it's still published in book form.
Can we have less of the 'modernism was alright for 1915...' nonsense, or actually even the 'rhyme is terribly old fashioned and reactionary' bollocks in 2016?
Poetry has never been that popular, but various manifestations of it have been around since the dawn of time, and I don't see it going away any time soon, and it's not the fault of anyone that it isn't constantly on television schedules next to Strictly. Even the best performance poets are unlikely to get the audience of Mrs Brown's Boys.
In fact, if you want a truly subversive and insidious poetry that can change peoples' perceptions of the world, perhaps it's better that way.
There are different kinds of writing that go under the subject of poetry, just as there are different kinds of art, or music, or indeed any creative endeavour.
There are people who produce landscapes and portraits and still lives, as there always have been.
There are people who site-specific assemblages, video works, collages, sculptures, abstract works of all kinds.
Both kinds are 'artists'. Whether you like that particular form of art or not.
In music, we have Brahms and the fiddler James Hill, Bob Dylan and John Cage, S Club 7 and Harrison Birtwistle. They all make music whether you like that music or not.
Will all of it last? Will all of it be of lasting value? Some of it will, some of it won't. Some of it will last that you wish would not. Some of it won't that you wish could be brought back.
Same with poetry.
Rhyming poetry still exists. You just have to listen to half the adverts on television, or go to a performance poetry night.
Poetry influenced by modernism still exists. People still write it, still disseminate in the back rooms of pubs etc and it's still published in book form.
Can we have less of the 'modernism was alright for 1915...' nonsense, or actually even the 'rhyme is terribly old fashioned and reactionary' bollocks in 2016?
Poetry has never been that popular, but various manifestations of it have been around since the dawn of time, and I don't see it going away any time soon, and it's not the fault of anyone that it isn't constantly on television schedules next to Strictly. Even the best performance poets are unlikely to get the audience of Mrs Brown's Boys.
In fact, if you want a truly subversive and insidious poetry that can change peoples' perceptions of the world, perhaps it's better that way.
Sat, 2 Jan 2016 11:35 am
" Even the best performance poets are unlikely to get the audience of Mrs Brown's Boys. "
Not to sound disdainful or anything but I'd be happy if that stayed the same with regard to myself, personally!
Not to sound disdainful or anything but I'd be happy if that stayed the same with regard to myself, personally!
Tue, 5 Jan 2016 11:29 pm
Hi Steven,
Is there really so much of the 'nonsense' and 'bollocks'
you'd like to see less of?
I really don't think you need worry.
Best wishes
Adam
Is there really so much of the 'nonsense' and 'bollocks'
you'd like to see less of?
I really don't think you need worry.
Best wishes
Adam
Tue, 19 Jan 2016 05:20 pm