Viewing Robert Frost (Part Two)

» w_benefield - Poetry's health

EXCELLENT article again. I am learning about poetry and poets a slow but awarding process. I like Frost's definitions of poetry as well as his style seen as showing simple but weighty moments in time.

I recently read an article "Can Poetry Matter" written in 1991 which surveyed the state of Poetry in the U.S. the diagnose was not good.

What do you think about Poetry's health is it failing? Are we (humankind) in such a hurry that we don't have time to slow down and experience those simple moments in time?

-- posted by w_benefield

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» 3rdGenertnAudrey - Re: Poetry's health

In response to message posted by w_benefield:

Although I haven't read the article you mentioned, I also am among those who think poetry is alive, but followed by mainly poets and students. The strongest poets seem to recognize this.

I note a few coffee-houses where poetry is rumored to be showcased, but haven't honestly perused them, myself. To me, the art of poetry grows more and more personal, and many novice poets I tend to encounter online view this form as the perfect way to complain in forced rhyme, and that, to me, is not truly art, but bitching. I write poems, but consider myself a writer more than a poet.

The platform for poetry is what mutates now, in the labeled "technology age." We see poetry web pages and poetry web rings and I feel the art doesn't die, but rather change. What was once just print media to enjoy has become fully interactive, including sound, and we see more provocative content, as well. Poets are no longer persons strictly of letters, as web-based text-driven art can be interpreted as poetic, as well. Even the lyrics for the music we listen to is poetry, as evidently alive today.

From going into poetry chatrooms online, I can see how there are many people out there calling themselves poets. A few I have actually made friends with, while publishing becomes a topic of discussion quite often. I've even written a poem based on the industry book "Poet's Market" asserting that I rolled a joint on it, because that's all it's good for, to me (rather personally). I wrote this as one who believes that poets should proudly self-publish, skipping all the industry garbage out there. As one who has attempted simple moments in time, I find those poems are often ignored for my more racy themes, quite sadly.

People will always want to think their lives are meaningful, and therefore create (whatever the medium). More so than poetry dying off out of disinterest, I'm made aware that creativity is often borne from those dubbed "mentally unstable," as art tends to be created as a method of coping. In short, drugs like Prozac (and such) may kill the creative nature of Man, making zombies out of poets once dubbed "creative genious."

There is a fine line, certainly, but students are taught to dissect writers, wholeheartedly. I feel new poets should learn to give and take criticism as honestly as possible. It takes thick skin to share your work, most definately. I'd also suggest directing this question to a living and acknowledged poet, like Sharon Olds, who wrote "Blood, Tin, Straw" and other poetry compilations, and teaches at NYU.

I hope this is informative. I do enjoy discussing it, at length. My friends, who mainly have no interest in poetry, hear about it rather often from me, and that's about all I can hope for, as a writer.

Feel free to respond!

~Audrey

-- posted by 3rdGenertnAudrey

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