Ploughshares: Adulterated Pleasure
Dec. 14th, 2005 06:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thedarkagesI just got the fall issue of Ploughshares, and am filled with mixed emotions. On the one hand, the state of American poetry seems to be in marked decline, except for one formalist who decided to use alliterative verse à la Gawain. On the other hand, these poets are the establishment. They've gotten Guggenheims, have been published in the most prestigious magazines, have gone to all the right workshops, and are apparently well-acquainted with David St. John, the poet who edited this issue.
I must not see the innate genius in this stuff. Prose poems can be nice writing, but their specifically poetic quality does not come across to me. This may be the voice of someone who says that their three-year-old can do abstract art, but if I write prose full of images, symbols, and metaphors, and insert line breaks, does it become poetry?
That's not a vacuous poem, but if I were to supply the stuff in great quantity to poetry contests worldwide, would editors mistakenly think it was good? Fortunately, I don't have the money for entrance fees in order to find out.
I must not see the innate genius in this stuff. Prose poems can be nice writing, but their specifically poetic quality does not come across to me. This may be the voice of someone who says that their three-year-old can do abstract art, but if I write prose full of images, symbols, and metaphors, and insert line breaks, does it become poetry?
The Clouds
The battle of the two Antilogoi Made up like preening cocks, Rubbing the worse argument against the better, Foreshadows something deeper: The way to cheat has become the way to win.
That's not a vacuous poem, but if I were to supply the stuff in great quantity to poetry contests worldwide, would editors mistakenly think it was good? Fortunately, I don't have the money for entrance fees in order to find out.
