Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Thoughts from Selective Eclecticism
- People try to set up poetry as oppositional, often between two extreme poles. Both of these propositions are nonsense, and one should be suspicious of these people's agendas.
- Richard Wilbur and John Ashbery are not diametrical opposites. Even within poetry, they're not on two ends of some big line, and in the whole wide world, they're pretty much on the same spot.
- Neither are Billy Collins and Rae Armantrout opposites.
- There is no Platonic ideal for "poem."
- "New" is no more inherently good than "traditional."
- Difficulty and accessibility are not mutually exclusive. Nor are accessibility/depth and difficulty/enjoyability.
- All but the very best poets are only sporadically successful in the poems they write.
- Most of the poems we've read this year, even most of the ones we praised, will be long gone in 25 years.
- Most people who work primarily as "poetry critics" are at best enjoyable gasbags and should be treated as such.
- You shouldn't take it personally if I don't like the work of a poet you like, with the possible exception of that poet being you.
More bulleted sound-bites to come someday.
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