More Poet Notes
What do the "new formalists" and the "Rebel Angels" (gag!) write?
They write verse, of course.
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Do folks who dislike poetry about poetry also dislike movies about movies and television about television and novels about novels? How about novels about novelists? Do the haters of poetry about poetry also hate poetry about poets? We know they detest Wallace Stevens. They must! I know at least one of them wears cowboy boots.
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I tend to dislike the poetry of those whom I personally dislike. I am aware of this prejudice but don't know what to do about it. I want to meet a poet who's a total dick, but writes kick-ass poetry.
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If you decide to teach poetry to a freshman composition class, be prepared for an uphill struggle. Today, a student noted that Shakspeare's Sonnet 130, like, totally was, y'know, not rhythmic at all, and doesn't even rhyme. Um. Okay.
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As an editor, how closely do you read submissions? I mean really read them. We have to go on our guts sometimes. Over dinner, my friend Hannah pulled out a recent issue of NWR and asked why we published a certain godawful poem. I read it, and remember liking it. I had a hard time defending it. After a couple days of close-reading and writing, I am fully prepared to defend it. But I must admit that it made it into the magazine without a struggle. Maybe we publish stuff we don't really like, or wouldn't like if we REALLY read it.
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The most poetic chef is Mario Batali. Jean-Georges Vongerichten runs a close second. That fool Rocco is anti-poet. He is a prose cooking guy. Not that there's anything wrong with prose. It steal reads, y'know.
"I am an idealistic, naive, passionate, truth-seeking, spiritually motivated artist, unschooled in the science of law and finance." --Wesley Snipes
Tuesday, August 10, 2004
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7 comments:
Anthony if you want to meet a total dick who's also a kickass poet then you should look in the mirror.
Love, Kirby
Ah, Kirby. You couldn't stay away, huh?
Well, I will concede that at least part of your assertion may be correct: perhaps I'm a total dick.
I don't think you're a dick. I also don't think you're a kick-ass poet.
I don't know if that makes us even.
Tony
I thought *all* poets are total dicks? Most of us anyway.
*I* am not a total dick. I don't even like typing the word. ew. I gotta go wash my hands. Nope. I'm an evil lesbian with no sense of humor.
Long live Margaret Cho.
Hmm, sometimes I think I'd rather be called a dick than a bitch (not that I mind that too much). Paging Dr. Freud!
Just don't call me a poetess!
Tony, I guess I am not sure of the difference between a punkass poet and a kickass poet. I think the same person can be one or the other at different times. It's rare to be a kickass poet. One great poem in one's life is enough to make one a kickass poet. If you start writing lots and lots of kickass poems, or if everything you write is a kickass poem, along the lines of an Attila Joszef, it means that you are well on your way to getting your ass kicked by a train. Eastern European poets are often kickass in that sense. I don't think there are any kickass poets in America at the present time. There are kissass poets and punkass poets all over the place. But let's at least agree that there is a category of the kickass poet, even though it is presently unoccupied. To my mind Corso and Poe were the only total kickass poets this country has had -- and I thank my stars for sparing me their fate. -- Kirby
I'm not sure about Poe.
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