Poetry and the Masses

[cheyrn]

Anyone who thinks poetry isn't wildly successful has a kink in their definition.

I think the topic of the original post is interesting in terms of what is useful for a poetry group to consider for criticism and how it should be categorized.

A definition of poetry is, first, going to be wrong, because of people's individual biases. And, it is intentional ignorance.

But, expressing oneself through a tradition has meaning. If you make music that says something about a jazz tradition, it makes sense to judge the degree to which it is coherent with that tradition.

In a group where people are teaching each other poetry, having categories is required. The categorization only has use as guidelines regarding what is to be analyzed, or if it is supposed to be seen from the perspective of a tradition, then it's useful for considering it's coherence.

There should not be an agenda to force poetry on people, unless it is an effort to increase literacy. Teaching something so broad requires allowing the people being taught to have their own learning experience that is outside of and beyond the teachers.

I wish whores were as eager to aggressively sell themselves as everybody else seems to be these days.

I understand, or think I do, your points. But, as an aside and out of context, the only whores are not involved in the sex trade. I don't think you are using the word in a degrading sense though.

If you were offered an advance of $100,000, would you write a book of 100 poems?

The only problem I have with supposedly selling out, is if you are modifying poetry to serve as propaganda for an organization that I don't like. Or, if I cherished a poem, and you sold it to a company to be used in some product advertisment, I would feel let down, but I wouldn't blame the artist.

I think this has already happened via pop music...

If you don't accept "I like big butts" as poetry, it is incest (supposed experts mingling with supposed experts). Art doesn't need to present a facade to tell people it is worthy of respect.