11-17-2013, 04:29 AM
In my opinion, poetry is a willow tree getting fucked by a woodpecker.
"I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."-- Wilde
Poetry and every art form is masturbatory; anyone who says otherwise is a tosser. Everything I have ever written or will ever write came from me and my relations to the world around me. What boggles my mind is not the narcissistic nature of my generation, but the brow beating it receives from the previous. Here we have anyone born between 1960-80 as belonging to a generation that was part of the cultural turnover to Reagan/Thatcher/Mulroney, to laissez faire neo-liberalism, jerked off to Ayn Rand (it was the second most sold book in the USA aside from the Bible) while loooooving the Beatles. The same generation that gave birth to disco and then New Wave while simultaneously pretending they didn't like it. For fuck's sake, your generation made Catcher in the Rye and Sylvia Plath-- so don't leave self-indulgence and insecurity on our doorstep :p
"Put differently, a good poem always has some sort of a unifying theme or another, yet at the same time, it has elements in the form of images that, in some sense, exceed the theme in the full depths of their meaning."
That's a fantastically cogent description. However, it misses key elements of some poetry which, since I'm butting into the conversation, I'll try to add.
1. Words sound great. I often listen to the Editors of Merriam-Webster and their lovely little clips that scroll down the side of their online definitions. One of them in particular was about the word 'defenestrate'. See, despite being a remarkably specific word that most people would never hear in a casual conversation, according to this particular editor, it is the word he most often hears cited to be the speakers favourite word. The implication is that it only takes a listener to hear the word once or twice to decide it sounds great. Why does butthole not compel my soul, but catharsis make me shiver? Same reason a tritone in music makes people aggressively sad: who the fuck knows?
2. Words have secret connotations. See, a pearl is defined by being a coloured deposit that's pretty. It has the overt connotations of being something highly prized, and its association with the ocean (which a poet can make use of). However, it also has the secret sexual connotations of being creamy white and typically found in the vagina resembling clam.
Another example is the word 'Freak'. I grew up with six brothers and was drawn to androgynous figures like Wilde, Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie. This meant I developed extremely thick skin fairly early. I've been called twat, cunt, whiny bitch, faggot, pussy, weak, pathetic, etc.. usually by my family, and it doesn't bother me. However, the word freak finds a secret spot inside of me that although I wouldn't show to anyone but my wife, makes me want to find a dark place and cry. That word is associated with a period in my life in which my ego and personality was still freshly forming, and the total rejection thereof by others. It is a child's mean. Now I guarentee you, were I to construct a poem (provided I was a better poet than I presently am) about that word, there would be a million other 20 something Canadians who would feel that word with the same secret connotation, and so my naval gazing becomes their connection.
If you disagree, remember the song 'Creep'. In countless ways, it was just another of the angst filled pube buckets of the 90's, however it launched Radiohead and stands the test of time simply because the line "I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. I don't belong here" has secret connotations so many of us felt.
3. What you said and I quoted, which is a lovely way of saying it.
"I like hearing myself talk. It is one of my greatest pleasures. I often have long conversations all by myself, and I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying."-- Wilde
Poetry and every art form is masturbatory; anyone who says otherwise is a tosser. Everything I have ever written or will ever write came from me and my relations to the world around me. What boggles my mind is not the narcissistic nature of my generation, but the brow beating it receives from the previous. Here we have anyone born between 1960-80 as belonging to a generation that was part of the cultural turnover to Reagan/Thatcher/Mulroney, to laissez faire neo-liberalism, jerked off to Ayn Rand (it was the second most sold book in the USA aside from the Bible) while loooooving the Beatles. The same generation that gave birth to disco and then New Wave while simultaneously pretending they didn't like it. For fuck's sake, your generation made Catcher in the Rye and Sylvia Plath-- so don't leave self-indulgence and insecurity on our doorstep :p
"Put differently, a good poem always has some sort of a unifying theme or another, yet at the same time, it has elements in the form of images that, in some sense, exceed the theme in the full depths of their meaning."
That's a fantastically cogent description. However, it misses key elements of some poetry which, since I'm butting into the conversation, I'll try to add.
1. Words sound great. I often listen to the Editors of Merriam-Webster and their lovely little clips that scroll down the side of their online definitions. One of them in particular was about the word 'defenestrate'. See, despite being a remarkably specific word that most people would never hear in a casual conversation, according to this particular editor, it is the word he most often hears cited to be the speakers favourite word. The implication is that it only takes a listener to hear the word once or twice to decide it sounds great. Why does butthole not compel my soul, but catharsis make me shiver? Same reason a tritone in music makes people aggressively sad: who the fuck knows?
2. Words have secret connotations. See, a pearl is defined by being a coloured deposit that's pretty. It has the overt connotations of being something highly prized, and its association with the ocean (which a poet can make use of). However, it also has the secret sexual connotations of being creamy white and typically found in the vagina resembling clam.
Another example is the word 'Freak'. I grew up with six brothers and was drawn to androgynous figures like Wilde, Freddie Mercury, and David Bowie. This meant I developed extremely thick skin fairly early. I've been called twat, cunt, whiny bitch, faggot, pussy, weak, pathetic, etc.. usually by my family, and it doesn't bother me. However, the word freak finds a secret spot inside of me that although I wouldn't show to anyone but my wife, makes me want to find a dark place and cry. That word is associated with a period in my life in which my ego and personality was still freshly forming, and the total rejection thereof by others. It is a child's mean. Now I guarentee you, were I to construct a poem (provided I was a better poet than I presently am) about that word, there would be a million other 20 something Canadians who would feel that word with the same secret connotation, and so my naval gazing becomes their connection.
If you disagree, remember the song 'Creep'. In countless ways, it was just another of the angst filled pube buckets of the 90's, however it launched Radiohead and stands the test of time simply because the line "I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. I don't belong here" has secret connotations so many of us felt.
3. What you said and I quoted, which is a lovely way of saying it.
If I could say only one thing before I die, it'd probably be,
"Please don't kill me"
"Please don't kill me"