Friday, April 01, 2005
Poetry Paneling
Given the timing, you'd think this might be about AWP, but no.
I've been invited to join a panel discussion at the May Poetry West meeting on "What Makes a Good Poem?" Also on the panel will be four people with more poetry experience than I have. I think my presence is due to my editorship of The Eleventh Muse and my "youthful perspective," artificially jaded as it is. Certainly not due to my verbal eloquence or po-biz accomplishments.
Anyway, I really don't know what I'm going to say about what makes a good poem. I mean, there's the utterly useless and solipsistic ("A good poem is one I like"), and then the slightly more pertinent but still badly vague. Something like "A good poem uses charged language to move you in an unexpected way. A great poem never lapses from the charged language or otherwise throws the reader out of the poem." After that, I guess you're into book-length dissertations.
What do other people say in answer to a question like this, which surely comes up often for poets?
I've been invited to join a panel discussion at the May Poetry West meeting on "What Makes a Good Poem?" Also on the panel will be four people with more poetry experience than I have. I think my presence is due to my editorship of The Eleventh Muse and my "youthful perspective," artificially jaded as it is. Certainly not due to my verbal eloquence or po-biz accomplishments.
Anyway, I really don't know what I'm going to say about what makes a good poem. I mean, there's the utterly useless and solipsistic ("A good poem is one I like"), and then the slightly more pertinent but still badly vague. Something like "A good poem uses charged language to move you in an unexpected way. A great poem never lapses from the charged language or otherwise throws the reader out of the poem." After that, I guess you're into book-length dissertations.
What do other people say in answer to a question like this, which surely comes up often for poets?
Comments:
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A good poem fucks with the reader's mind. Or at least sticks in their craw. And I speak with the vast authority of a former AWP Board member.
Joseph. Thanks, I like your definition. I may have to temper it somewhat for this panel, as there are lots of nice octogenarian ladies in Poetry West. :-)
Hey there Steve, saw the link to your blog, and wanted to stop by. My own abortive attempts at blogging managed to drum up an audience of . . . hmm, my girlfriend, and those of my girlfriend's friends who disliked me. Not exactly world-changing! So, yes, I'm stopping by to expand the readership. Solidarity!
As to what makes a good poem: I seem to recall you posting a pretty good laundry list in the course of dressing down a certain fellow poet, much to the chagrin of other certain fellow poets. That list seems like a good place to start.
As to what makes a good poem: I seem to recall you posting a pretty good laundry list in the course of dressing down a certain fellow poet, much to the chagrin of other certain fellow poets. That list seems like a good place to start.
# posted by 
: April 06, 2005 6:03 PM
: April 06, 2005 6:03 PM
Clay, thanks for stopping by. I did not know you had blogged previously.
So I should use that "Elements of Poetry" list, huh? That might help indeed. I'll have to remove the acerbic comments about the poem in question, however.
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So I should use that "Elements of Poetry" list, huh? That might help indeed. I'll have to remove the acerbic comments about the poem in question, however.
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