FAQ: What is Contemporary Poetry?

William Haskins

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What is contemporary poetry?

It depends on who you ask. But, for our purposes, we will define it as poetry created during the lifetime of any reader who might happen upon this forum. This generally, and logically, aligns with post-World War II work, but we will remain fluid.

After all, we do ourselves a disservice to sideline the importance of the war poems of Owen and Sassoon and their influence of social conscience, or the impact of Imagism and Surrealism on the Beats, or the gravity of the Harlem Renaissance and how it amplified a distinctly African-American voice that only grew stronger over the twentieth century and into the new millennium.

We will be inclusive of academic poets and outlaw poets, slam poets and twitter poets and all other flavor of poet keeping this ancient art form alive.

In short, we will consider anyone working into the second half of the twentieth century up to now as our contemporary poets. This represents a rich timeline of experimental risk-taking, resurgence of traditional form and vivid insights into the evolution of feminist and LGBTQ poetry and so much more.

What can / should we discuss?

Anything you like: criticism, news, comparative analysis of works or worldviews, or something as simple as discovering a new poet or some new insight on a known poet.

As long as it is rooted in genuine interest, curiosity and love of the art form, it's fair game.

Anything we need to know about thread etiquette?

Adhere to the board rules about respecting your fellow writer and providing citations to back up your positions in debate. Other than that, just act human, don't troll and do your part to keep poetry alive.

Ideas and constructive criticism always welcome. Just post comments below or feel free to PM me.
 

Kylabelle

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When I left AW mid 2016, I was burnt out of writing. I knew at that time it was temporary because it's part of my longstanding pattern to go through times like that, but I needed to be away from it completely for a while.

One of the cool things that lured me back to poetry happened when I joined an online yoga community. The teacher would read us a poem during savasana (the corpse pose traditionally enjoyed at the end of a yoga practice.) She used a lot of Mary Oliver's poems for that and something about the deep relaxation of savasana coupled with Mary Oliver's soothing voice invited me back to poetry in a very seductive way.

Then I read the cozy mystery series by Louise Penny. Her main character Armand Gamache quotes a lot of poetry, and one of the other major characters is herself an (insulting, profane, crusty, strange but well-loved) old woman poet. The poetry Penny puts in character Ruth Zardo's mouth (and books) is by Margaret Atwood. So I recently bought and am reading a collection of her works. Not soothing at all, but satisfying in how she always cuts to the bone. Reliably.

Even more recently I have been enjoying Button Poetry's spoken word videos, a couple of which I have posted here (in the Poetry forum.)

So I am writing again, and hungry for more poetry.
 
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