poll: what do you think of this?

Question

poetry is like a butterfly
poetry when loses its wilderness becomes an ornament with trophy status.
when the mystery is crushed out of a poem when its wings are pinned forever , when it no longer makes weird noises in the night, when it has grown harmless in the collectionbook of the school text, the poem will have attained the state of perfect meaning which is death. many people treat poetry like this these days whats your opinion?

We train ourselves by My point is that poetry lives now, and now can be as confusing as this morning's headlines. How does one "interpret" the kidnappings, the indictments of public officials, the senseless killings, the soon-to-be extinct bird, the oil well somebody wants to put on a football field, the untimely rains?

That the art of poetry has become little more than "filler" in many school texts—like those odd items wedged in the daily paper that report hailstones the size of cannonballs in Missoula—is such a truism that it's boring to discuss. For most teachers (and for all too many students) The Perhaps the last time you really came into close contact with poetry was for a college or graduate school term paper. You haven't had the time or the inclination to "keep up" with poetry since then, and have found yourself avoiding the teaching of it, if you can, or gritting your teeth through the "poetry unit" when it rolls around each year.

How this happened to poetry remains a debatable and complicated question, and I don't know how head-on it has been confronted in print. Literary critics write for university professors, poets don't really want to acknowledge the situation.

As for poetry, why, we can always take refuge in the classics. What we forget is that Shelley and Byron and Keats were legendary freaks in their own time, generally impaled by critics and deemed incomprehensible. Time, which tames all but the wildest of lions, has tamed them, too. The poetry of all but the very greatest of poets (and I include the three writers that I have just mentioned in that company) eventually turns into a kind of prose.

Contemporary poetry, that is, poetry written by living poets or written in the recent past, is the biggest headache of all. And the biggest complaint about it is: "I can't figure out what this poet is talking about. What does this mean?" The Hunt for the Meaning has become institutionalized as "Appreciation of Poetry 101." Year after year this goes on, until finally (somewhere in college) we are confronted with that terror of terrors, that event we always fear would happen: the poem has grown so complicated, so ornery, that we find it impossible to put together what we have so industriously "analyzed." We give up! What a relief, what a fantastically lucky breakdown!

Answer 1

Tres interresant.Mark,my friend,you continue to amaze me with your versatility.You surprise me by jumping from one topic to another with
your questions.But then it is nice because I
learn a lot both from your queries and the
responses you receive.Of course,I attempt to
reply only if I can(meaning if I know something of my onions).However,keep it up.Great going.
Now poetry is something which is somewhat dicey to engage in a debate over or discuss with anyone,more so with a guy like you who seems to know his Vidalias in depth.My
knowledge is confined to appreciating the thoughts of the poet and going crazy trying to find out any deeper thoughts thought by the poet when he/she penned his/her lines.
Sometimes I seek solace by reading Tennyson,
Byron,Keats,Scott,Browning,Longfellow and
Shakespeare's plays.Modern poetry stumps me
somewhat.I concur with your views about how many people treat poetry these days.Most
poetry does tend to turn to prose but I love the prose that turns to poetry.I wonder whether you comprehend what I am trying to get across.All I'll say is(if you have not already read it)do get hold of a copy of my alltime
favorite book titled "Cyrano de Bergerac" by
Edmond Rostand and translated by Brian Hooker.I have read this play at least 120 times.
"Scintillating" is the only word that springs to my mind trying to describe the book in one word.Have a nice day.

Answer 2

No offense at all, but a couple of points, (mine personally)

I have never sought poetry, especiallt that which I've created. It has "always" found me.

Your reference to the classics and their writers is valid, however NEW THOUGHTS is probably not what happens in poetry. Much like music, everything is recycled. Certainly in some minor, modified form.

Third and finally. I personally pay little or no attention to anything outside of my own microcosim. Does that make me more ignorant? OR just more in tune with myself? Hail stones was a great example of one of those things I have no influence or control over, and while I might have a momentary thought about property damage or human suffering, I'm already going to get so much NEWS "after" the fact. In that context I subscribe to..."so what?"

Most poetry is an expression of a very personal situation, or ones observations of it, and it's effect and affect. In that vein and very honestly, there have been far more thoughts and emotions recorded, LOST now, than have ever been penned and still in existance.

Good, thought provoking post.

Steven Wolf

Answer 3

I think the age is no longer appropriate for poetry. Poetry to bloom needs to be a time of upheavals. It thrives in a land, where people undergo many eventful experiences. A loss here and a victory there that make up a kaleidoscope of life is the ideal setting for creation of poetry. I think the world scenario now is no longer appropriate for poetry.

Answer 4

I think now is as excellent of a time as any for poetry.There are plenty of problems to write about from all around the world...let alone locally, for anyone who knows about or lives near inner-city life.

Answer 5

Very good.....
I can interpret this as I feel fit.......
Poetry is also a part of mans' long evolving
and developing intelligence............
A so-called key to the way I feel God intended us to think....
..........With our hearts.

Answer 6

nice

Answer 7

good one. where is the poem.