Poetry is Dead

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

we live in the dark ages.

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

an era of pop culture, sloth and rejection of deeper thought.

robeiae · Jun 17, 2005

Do you think it has anything to do with all of the other kinds of media that have proliferated? Do potential poets find other means to utilize their creative talents? What about the level of education? The fact that most people recieve at least (and most likely) a mediocre education might result in a stifling of those voices that once stood out from the crowd (my meaning-everyone is a critic nowadays, though few are properly eqipped).

Rob

BradyH1861 · Jun 17, 2005

Actually you are right. I killed it. I wrote a poem that was so horrible, so awful, that it killed the genre.

My apologies.

Brady H.

robeiae · Jun 17, 2005

Perhaps the poets of this age have fallen under the spell of commercial success...perhaps they are all writing bylines in cubicles...(isn't this a theme of Rush Song?)

Rob

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

of salesmen.... of salesmen.....
offfffffffffffffff SALESMEN!

(guitar solo)

robeiae · Jun 17, 2005

Studio walls=bathroom stalls=subway walls?

Rob

robeiae · Jun 17, 2005

Well, since Rush is still alive, I guess poetry is not dead!

Rob

rhymegirl · Jun 17, 2005

KTC said:
For the words of the profits were written on the studio wall
Concert hall
And echoes with the sounds of salesmen

Shouldn't that be "prophets"?

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

no, it's "profits". a play on words.

it's a statement on the commercialization of art.

brokenfingers · Jun 17, 2005

Wow, that song brings back memories. I love Rush.

I agree that poetry is on the decline. Or maybe not so much on the decline as receding from the limelight of mass appeal.

It's become the forgotten son, lingering in the shadows of its younger siblings: song lyrics, rap lyrics and advertising jingles.

It's the evolution of culture, I suppose. The same thing that once had people thinking smoking was fine and dandy, but now thinking it's gross and unhealthy.

I think poetry is seen by the common masses as effeminate and ineffective anymore. I, myself, have only recently even read poetry - mostly due to the common misperception that the average TV watching, Top 40 listening population has of poetry.

I'm curious: Does anybody have any ideas or scenarios - no matter how farfetched -that would possibly bring poetry back into the international limelight?

robeiae · Jun 17, 2005

Nuclear holocaust...

Rob

Alphabet · Jun 17, 2005

Nah... it is like royalty... you must have heard of 'The king is dead. Long live the King!' - it is the same - 'Poetry is dead. Long live poetry!'

although, I'd love to hear an eulogy for it, up to that William? Or, wouldn't it have made a killer for the comedy in a graveyard? Maybe we will wall it up behind a huge stone and then, oh, can I? three days later it will be recognised once more in the world.

Cassie88 · Jun 17, 2005

If Rod McKuen was able to cash in on the masses, then there's hope for poetry. Man, if people like Madonna thought there was money to be made, they'd all be writing poetry. Right now, it's children's books! Wait... I think I meant if McKuen could cash in...there is no hope for poetry... my mind..oy....

MadScientistMatt · Jun 17, 2005

That's funny, I was listening to that song on CD when I drove to work today.

arrowqueen · Jun 17, 2005

Hell mend 'em. That's what you get when you throw rhythm, rhyme, meter, form and scansion out the window.

brokenfingers · Jun 17, 2005

KTC,

I've never heard the term poetry slam or even knew they existed until about 3 months ago. I'm intrigued and have put it on my list of To-Do things - if I can find any in my area (Cincinnati, Ohio)

I'd like to clarify a little:

I don't think poetry is dead - but it's become like disco, typewriters and ham radios.

Yeah, some people still do it - but it's left the minds of mainstream consciousness. It's become a fringe activity, enjoyed by relatively few any more.

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

this is one god damn depressing thread.

brokenfingers · Jun 17, 2005

Just curious Haskins,

You into Disco?

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

brokenfingers · Jun 17, 2005

(LOL Haskins! Sheesh - you didn't have to go and upload an old photo!)

I'm curious. Do you think part of the reason poetry has fallen by the wayside is the insistence by many that it need have no rules, anyone can do it, poetry is in the eye of the person doing the "poet"ing and not the audience?

In other words, the bastardization of the idea of "art" and the term "artist"?

(Friday nights when I can't go out always make me deeply introspective and contemplative.... or is that moody and angry???? Hell, maybe it's just frustrated and unsatisfied....)

William Haskins · Jun 17, 2005

I'm curious. Do you think part of the reason poetry has fallen by the wayside is the insistence by many that it need have no rules, anyone can do it, poetry is in the eye of the person doing the "poet"ing and not the audience?

i don't see it being rooted in the relaxation of formalism. i mean, the beats turned language inside-out, and they maintained a strong and serious readership.

one could argue that the decline of poetry corresponds to the rise of mass media, and that's a part of it, in my opinion. most song lyrics, greeting card copy, commericial jingles are tripe. but the message they convey is easy to grasp.

fed on this steady diet of crap, the mental muscles designed to read and process real poetry are reduced to a state of atrophy. a cultural laziness sets in and people are too fat to reach for any but the lowest hanging fruit.

and (quick apology in advance to any slammers) the merging of poetry and performance dilutes and cheapens the writing, because it compensates often bad writing with moody pretention or "you go girl" attitude.

their intentions are good, i think, but the result is mostly disappointing.

i started the thread impulsively, and to be honest, i don't believe poetry is dead, i just think it's really sick. it'll come back around but i doubt i'll live to see it.

oh yeah, the other thing you mentioned, the lowering of the bar. yes.

and the internet had blown that wide open. with forums and websites, all manner of so-called poetry can proliferate to fill scam anthologies and get lots of critiques with dancing smilies.

it's that mentality of automatic validation that "anything can be poetry" and if you say it doesn't work, then you just don't get it or you're trying to tell them how to write.

it's like how they won't let kids keep score in soccer games.

i don't know. i need a cigarette.

Roger J Carlson · Jun 17, 2005

Poetry died when poets stopped rhyming.

LieselGarmach · Jun 17, 2005

One of my professors asked me what was wrong with me when I said, "I honestly don't understand what the poet was trying to tell me when I read this".

She told me that poetry didn't have to be "gotten" to be good. I asked her what the point of writing it was, and she asked me why I wrote at all. I told her I thought I had something to say. She asked me what I thought I had to say that anyone else might want to hear.

Ouch.

Then, some years later, I realized that I'd allowed her to snatch my dream of writing from me. Why wouldn't what I have to say mean just as much as the poet's words that I didn't understand? Oh, I still wrote, but it wasn't much, and it was not what I wanted to write. I wrote what was easy. I still write what comes easily to me, and I'm darned good at it. Poetry, though...not more than half a dozen since that day. I like to make it rhyme, and sound like you can dance to it, and have it truly mean something to the reader.

Genuinely, I thought I had it all wrong. I didn't. I don't. Not many want to read it, though.

No one wants to think. Spoon feed the kids. Plop them in front of the TV or the computer and let them think their ringtones are music. It's far more tragic than I'd ever imagined that afternoon when the teacher asked what was wrong with me. Now I'm wondering.....what's wrong with values and making kids learn to think. Quality poetry invokes thought.

thistle · Jun 17, 2005

Roger J Carlson said:
Poetry died when poets stopped rhyming.

I disagree, Roger. William Shakespeare wrote in blank verse and his images, words, meter, make his work poetic.

A poem isn't about rhyme, it's about capturing the essence of life and trapping it in words, like light in a bottle.

I think people need poetry. The morning of 9/11, I was teaching. I watched the planes crash and tried to make sense of it as the bell for second period sounded in the halls. My class filed in and took their seats. Everyone was quiet. I asked them to find T.S. Eliot's "Hollow Men" in their books and we read it. Bang or whimper? Which will you choose?

We didn't talk about the people, the planes, the buildings, or the nonsense. We talked about that essence of life.

So many people approached me that week asking for poems for memorial services, assemblies, or just for thought. During the last days of September 2001, people craved a message more relevant than the news crawl and more spiritual than a sitcom. People needed poetry.

Unfortunately, poetry has to compete with advertising, hip hop, reality TV, and Fox News for a spot in people's lives. Poetry's not dead, just like the rhythms of life aren't dead. Sometimes people get so caught up with their remote controls and Playstations that they overlook the beauty and poetry around them.

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