Notes Toward a Poetics of Something-or-Other

Jim Behrle asks some questions about the New Sincerity that I’d like to address in this post.

It seems to me redundant (and tiresome) to give the entire rundown of the “History of the New Sincerity” here, especially since I’ve done this a few times in the past, on this blog, and in others’ comment boxes. Other bloggers like Seth Abramson, Ginger Heatter, and of course, my friend Joe Massey have, at times, collected various documents concerning the New Sincerity. The best of these roundups, courtesy of Neil Aitken, lives here. These are, at least up until August 22nd, the “core documents” of the New Sincerity.

That said, I should clarify a few things.

1) I have problems with the word “movement,” but people (including myself) have been calling it a movement, and this designation implies certain tendencies in those who claim allegiance. Namely, since a movement is ostensibly something one can join, it is a club. And clubs are like teams. And teams are like armies. And armies, are by nature, adversarial. By branding your “club” a “movement” you invite bellicosity, or at least open the door for the possibility of squabbles. Squabbling, in itself, is not always a bad thing because sometimes it leads to productive conversation. Other times, it's just squabbling.

2) When I first “introduced” the term “New Sincerity” (though I didn’t invent it—please see my Note below) on this blog, back in June, I called it a “school,” in a post responding to Jonathan Mayhew’s post about “period styles” in poetry. It became a “movement’ (I’m guessing) approximately a month later when Joe Massey wrote a manifesto. I think manifestos are neat but, again, I am wary of movements.

3) Why am I wary of movements? Because they invite speculation along the lines of “what are YOU gonna do to make poetry better?” The short answer is “well, try to write better poems.” Of course, none of us are going to make "Poetry" better or worse. It just is. As a teacher, I’m going to make sure students read a lot of poetry. I think Jim is correct when he notes that MFAers (and other students of poetry) need exactly as much time as they need to “find” themselves. Pushy teachers are not going to help matters. Pushy teachers are going to push talented students away. This might, in the long run, be a good thing—but only if the talented students are resilient enough to weather the initial rejection and disappointment and continue to write poetry on their own terms.

4) The New Sincerity (whatever it is) is not focused on being adversarial. We are against no one school of poetry (not even the SOQ or the “Tortilla School”). We are for being passionate about poetry, and being honest with ourselves and with others about the kind of poetry we like to read, would like to write, and would like to teach. When I say something like “I don’t like boring poems” (which may be a bit trite or obtuse for some readers) I mean exactly that. I know too, that I’m not engaged in a battle, per se, because any such battle will lose. Once again, I invoke here Sturgeon’s Law and that Vonnegut bit about anti-glacier books.

5) The New Sincerity then, is focused on poetry we like, not that which we do not. We run parallel to existing traditions.

6) Jimmy asks the following: “Is it impossible to write good poems any other way than yours? Why all the blog-noise? Show us your hearts.”

Nope. There are all kinds of great ways to write poems. Just looking at poems by myself, Andy Mister, Charlie Jensen, Reb Livingston, Laurel Snyder, Joseph Massey, Gina Myers, and a number of others we admire (Franz Wright—even tho’ he threatened to sue me, Jess Mynes, etc.) should provide ample evidence of this. Come look at my bookshelf.

Why all the blog-noise? I’m not sure. I guess our initial notes toward a New Sincerity struck nerves. I’ve responded to many posts and questions. So if that’s noise, cool.

7) Collectively, what we can or will do remains to be seen. Jim already mentioned that Andy Mister is a good poet and reader. Anyone who has seen Massey read or who owns one of his chapbooks can attest to his strength as a poet. Reb Livingston’s “No Tell Motel” regularly publishes work that I enjoy. Andy & I have written a collaborative chapbook manuscript of poems that might be “newly sincere.” Other works, individually and collaboratively, are forthcoming.

IN CONCLUSION, this is not about “us vs. them.” We’re just some people who like poetry. Some of us teach it. Some of us write it. All of us read it.


NOTE: "The New Sincerity" was coined by Andy Mister during a drinking contest in December 2004 in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco.