06-25-2017, 06:39 AM
(06-25-2017, 06:24 AM)rowens Wrote: I think there is only value in form when using that form to create a tone or mood or aesthetic which in some way can't help but being related to the way the form has been used in the past. Unless you write in the form so well that all other poems written in that form before you are either forgotten or acknowledged only as a footnote to you.um, i think you are being a bit either/or about it. i agree that some forms are novel and in many ways unrepeatable (i am thinking of Bacon--in the art world god forbid you should copy his style or technique or you shall be forever known as the poor man's Bacon); however, this surely cannot be said of all other forms, or, indeed, when it comes to the basics. playing an Am and Em chord has an intrinsically melancholic quality. If you listen to 'ode to joy' and feel depressed then something's gone wrong. as far as i can see, being proficient in a form only means you have the luxury of being creative with it. which i think can only be a good and valuable thing.
and just a PS. i have read beat poetry since i was like 14, jack, allen, greg, gary, even jim... and i have to say that reading you, be it poetry or comment, certainly makes me think of a better poem, by any of them, more than any good sonnet i have read on here makes me think of shakespeare.