Poets are insane

[Agnes]

From the fringes, looking in...

http://jjgallaher.blogspot.com/2011/02/ ... etter.html
http://jjgallaher.blogspot.com/2011/02/ ... art-1.html
http://jjgallaher.blogspot.com/2011/02/ ... art-2.html
http://jjgallaher.blogspot.com/2011/02/ ... lands.html
http://seansinger.blogspot.com/2011/02/ ... man-p.html
http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/2011/0 ... sm-in.html

[edited to add: http://jjgallaher.blogspot.com/2011/02/ ... html#links Interesting.]

Thoughts? Tell me that isn't whack. What a bunch of whiners. I'm only half kidding. Poets are nuts.

Is Tony Hoagland's "The Change" a bad poem? How can it be? Bad poems don't create such a ruckus. Who would raise such a fuss over a bad poem? No one. What do we do when we see a bad poem? We just roll our eyes and walk away. Right? We don't give it another thought. I didn't really care for Seth Abramson's reading of the poem, but then I don't like being read to. If you're going to read to me, you should be a Taylor Mali or Rives. And then there's Beau Sia. Performance art, that's real. The other "reading" stuff is Memorex. Blah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OonDPGwA ... r_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtVepS53t0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvDj-NYn ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjeLu5HF ... re=related

Put some oomph into it. A little passion doesn't hurt. Right?

So what are we talking about? Art. Petty poets. Snots and snobs. Mob mindset. Politics. PC run amok. Censure. Bicker. Bicker. Bicker. Social activism. Crazy people. Did I leave anything out? Who owns the race card?



Agnes

[Cat Sith]

Whoa. No time to look at the links right this moment but will definitely be back. Looks interesting.

[Agnes]

Whoa. No time to look at the links right this moment but will definitely be back. Looks interesting.

Well, I hope so, 'cause I'm gettin' bored twiddlin' my thumbs in here and may have to create a tote 'em poll. They have handles, ya know.


Agnes

[Cat Sith]

Okay. Well that was a bit of a time investment. :P

I read it all (well, almost, there was one blog post I just couldn't get through - b o r i n g). And I watched all of the vids. And I even suffered through the reading of the poem in question. Ugh. It sure sounded different in my head when I read it to myself. Very different. Extremely different. If that's the way that particular person hears it in their head, no wonder they don't get it. How dry and dull a place that must be.

My thoughts on the subject are pretty simple. To me, the whole point of poetry is to bring different points of view and different perspectives to the same situation. As a reader, it's to see and thereby hopefully experience things through another person's eyes (not necessarily the author as stated in some of the posts). It then gives me, the reader, the option to either agree with or reject the idea for myself. I add it to my own perceptions, mix it all up, and spit out a new and improved (or at least more informed) opinion I guess? The fact that some people reacted so strongly to this poem sort of validates what the poet said, that naivety exists surrounding the subject. I didn't read it as racist. I think racially complex does describe it better. But there is so much more in the poem than race, it amazes me that none of it was mentioned in any of the blog posts. When I read the poem, I read about evolution, identification of self, irony, power, strength of conviction, competitiveness, to name a few things other than race. To me, race was not the main theme so much as resistance to change and the inevitable acceptance of change, as in --> like-it-or-not-change-happens. Regardless of who you are, of how self-righteous you may be, no matter how much you may think you have ownership of something, everything is subject to time and to the possibility of change.

Yes. Whiners. Agreed.

For the record, and I'm sure Agnes you know this already, but I've no idea who any of these people are. I don't get out much. So my reflections above are not swayed by anything, which I guess could be a good or a bad thing.

~WS
I'm mad. You're mad. We're all mad here. *cackles*

[Agnes]

Okay. Well that was a bit of a time investment. :P

I read it all (well, almost, there was one blog post I just couldn't get through - b o r i n g). And I watched all of the vids. And I even suffered through the reading of the poem in question. Ugh. It sure sounded different in my head when I read it to myself. Very different. Extremely different. If that's the way that particular person hears it in their head, no wonder they don't get it. How dry and dull a place that must be.

My thoughts on the subject are pretty simple. To me, the whole point of poetry is to bring different points of view and different perspectives to the same situation. As a reader, it's to see and thereby hopefully experience things through another person's eyes (not necessarily the author as stated in some of the posts). It then gives me, the reader, the option to either agree with or reject the idea for myself. I add it to my own perceptions, mix it all up, and spit out a new and improved (or at least more informed) opinion I guess? The fact that some people reacted so strongly to this poem sort of validates what the poet said, that naivety exists surrounding the subject. I didn't read it as racist. I think racially complex does describe it better. But there is so much more in the poem than race, it amazes me that none of it was mentioned in any of the blog posts. When I read the poem, I read about evolution, identification of self, irony, power, strength of conviction, competitiveness, to name a few things other than race. To me, race was not the main theme so much as resistance to change and the inevitable acceptance of change, as in --> like-it-or-not-change-happens. Regardless of who you are, of how self-righteous you may be, no matter how much you may think you have ownership of something, everything is subject to time and to the possibility of change.

Yes. Whiners. Agreed.

For the record, and I'm sure Agnes you know this already, but I've no idea who any of these people are. I don't get out much. So my reflections above are not swayed by anything, which I guess could be a good or a bad thing.

~WS
I'm mad. You're mad. We're all mad here. *cackles*

I don't get out either. Heh. These people are poets. Published poets. Prize-winning poets. Poets with university ties. Poets from another world. I read Gallaher's blog, but I'm not real familiar with the others. You can google them to read some of their poetry. Google Tony Hoagland's poem Lucky. Never mind. I'll give you a link:
http://www.americanpoems.com/poets/Tony-Hoagland/19668

So, have you written a "race" poem? Does race/ethnicity make an appearance in any of your poems? I think I have a couple. Maybe three. My poetry is more likely to focus on religion than race or politics. I do have an anti-feminist poem, though.

Agnes

[Cat Sith]

Wow, that is a really moving poem. And no, I don't have any race poems. I've never really thought about writing one. It's not a burning topic for me. In fact, I'm not sure what *is* a burning topic for me. Which is probably why I struggle with "what to write". I posted a new thread asking for examples of really good poetry. This thread here got me thinking about it.