Part 1: Discussing "Can Poetry Matter?"
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poetreeI'd like to begin my coverage by discussing the seed article and some of its assumptions, which are ... true but incomplete.
American poetry now belongs to a subculture. No longer part of the mainstream of artistic and intellectual life, it has become the specialized occupation of a relatively small and isolated group.
This academic subculture of poetry is real and powerful. However, it is not the be-all and end-all of poetry, even just modern American poetry. There is poetry in greeting cards, advertisements, activist chants and signs, pop songs, and plastered all over the internet. People just don't think of that poetry as relevant because they've been told, falsely, that only the ivory tower kind matters. This is nonsense. Poetry in the wild has far more exposure and therefore far more influence. Think outside the box. It's where the poetry is.
As a class poets are not without cultural status. Like priests in a town of agnostics, they still command a certain residual prestige. But as individual artists they are almost invisible.
You are only as invisible as you let yourself be. Retreat to academia if you wish; it's your choice. But you also have the option of spray-painting your poetry on a sign, printing it on bookmarks, scribbling it on your body, chalking it on sidewalks, posting it on your blog, or doing whatever else you can think of to share it with the world. You can put yourself out there as a poet-for-hire if that appeals to you.
What makes the situation of contemporary poets particularly surprising is that it comes at a moment of unprecedented expansion for the art. There have never before been so many new books of poetry published, so many anthologies or literary magazines. Never has it been so easy to earn a living as a poet.
Well that's a mangle of short-sighted ideas. There's nothing surprising or unprecedented here; poetry comes into and out of fashion over the centuries just like most other things do. There have been other booms, although we do enjoy better and cheaper publication options than previous generations. There have been other busts too.
It is not easy to earn a living as a poet now, although it has been in some past times and it is getting easier -- because the bottleneck is broken, and poets can now turn to audiences for support. Editors? Very few of them have money to spend on poetry, and they will tell you this. So go where the money is. Go where the people are. Take some poetry with you.
There are now several thousand college-level jobs in teaching creative writing, and many more at the primary and secondary levels.
That isn't making a living as a POET. That is making a living as a TEACHER. One must be at least arguably adequate at teaching to hold such a position. The standard for poetry is, shall we say, a great deal more lenient. The academic circles of poetry are designed for mutual support, profit, and applause not for the development of technically ept or artistically powerful verse.
Not long ago, "only poets read poetry" was meant as damning criticism. Now it is a proven marketing strategy.
The bigger your potential target audience, the bigger your potential profit. You can choose to market your work to a niche, and this can work especially if that niche is underserved so there is minimal competition. But don't paint yourself into a corner. If your poetry is capably written and deals with a topic that interests people, they can be hooked into it even if they "don't like poetry." They'll just say, "but for some reason I like yours."
There is, in fact, little coverage of poetry or poets in the general press.
Anyone can help fix this by writing about poetry, whether critique or review or interview. Also boost the signal for other folks who are doing the same.
Poets are justifiably sensitive to arguments that poetry has declined in cultural importance, because journalists and reviewers have used such arguments simplistically to declare all contemporary verse irrelevant.
The situation is what it is. That doesn't mean you have to agree with it or go along with it. Also, if people think poetry is irrelevant? Their defenses against it are flat down. Poetry remains powerful whether people know it and believe it or not. It plays on the linguistic infrastructure of the brain. Consider what advertisements can do to people who aren't already exposed and thus somewhat immune to them. POW.
Even if great poetry continues to be written, it has retreated from the center of literary life. Though supported by a loyal coterie, poetry has lost the confidence that it speaks to and for the general culture.
Yeah, just ignore that too. You want your poetry to be relevant? Pick topics that speak to and for the general culture. Pick any one or several of the subcultures that the mainstream likes to stomp on, and speak up for those. Teach the under-represented folks that people like them can and do write poetry. It's very subversive. It's also a lot of fun, and sometimes folks will give you money just to poke a bigot in the eye with words.
The established rituals of the poetry world—the readings, small magazines, workshops, and conferences—exhibit a surprising number of self-imposed limitations. Why, for example, does poetry mix so seldom with music, dance, or theater?
Because they're stupid, they've been trained that way, and they're trying to make themselves feel "special" by belonging to a clique with esoteric rules. Scrap it. Mix poetry with whatever excites you. If you're excited, other people are more likely to be excited. Look for things that fascinate people, then put poetry on them or write poetry about you. This will get people interested in poetry.
When institutions evaluate creative artists for employment or promotion, they still must find some seemingly objective means to do so.
Sadly they can't be bothered to do such things as ensure the poet can stick to a meter, follow the rules of a form, identify vital current issues in need of artistic expression, or handle subtle tricks of linguistics to charm the ear. So they look at who writes the most stuff. The result is all too often an ivory tower full of top-notch birdcage liner.
The proliferation of literary journals and presses over the past thirty years has been a response less to an increased appetite for poetry among the public than to the desperate need of writing teachers for professional validation. Like subsidized farming that grows food no one wants, a poetry industry has been created to serve the interests of the producers and not the consumers.
So for a while, people just ignored poetry because it was boring. And then the internet happened. People who liked poetry suddenly had a much easier way to share it. There is poetry ALL OVER the internet. Sure, a lot of it is self-published junk, but that's okay. If you write lots and lots, eventually you do tend to get better. The people who are good tend to build up an audience. Now there's a lot more poetry going on outside the ivory towers, which is a good thing.
The new poet makes a living not by publishing literary work but by providing specialized educational services. Most likely he or she either works for or aspires to work for a large institution—usually a state-run enterprise, such as a school district, a college, or a university (or lately even a hospital or prison)—teaching others how to write poetry or, on the highest levels, how to teach others how to write poetry.
Most of them do an execrable job at all of that. This is because genuine talent is downright threatening in an institutional environment. So, avoid the institutions. It's okay to take some poetry classes if you can find those that are more constructive than destructive. But it's not necessary. Read widely, write often, trust your instincts, explore the world, and cycle input into output. That's life, that's art, that's poetry. Pleasing a committee? That's a good way to put beans on the table, but a lousy way to make great literature.
As Wallace Stevens once observed, "The purpose of poetry is to contribute to man's happiness." Children know this essential truth when they ask to hear their favorite nursery rhymes again and again.
That's because many nursery rhymes are tiny little gems of linguistic brilliance. "Pattycake, Pattycake" for example has the three unvoiced stopped consonants (p, t, k) of English in order of articulation from the front to the back of the mouth. The human brain thinks this is really cool. It feels good in your head to bounce those sounds through your mouth. That's why the nursery rhyme sticks in your memory and is fun.
Write some poetry like that and if you do it well enough, people will love it. Think Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Brilliant linguistic content there. The fact that it's marketed to small children is irrelevant. Both the technical merit and the artistic appeal are phenomenal. And "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" will probably be chanted on Mars long after people have forgotten the ivory tower poems of the academic boom.
How does one persuade justly skeptical readers, in terms they can understand and appreciate, that poetry still matters?
Simple: write poems about things that people already care about. Then put that poetry somewhere they will see it. The subject will hook them. Later they may be surprised that they liked poetry, but you can still get an amazing amount of eyeballs this way. Make poetry not just for intellectuals, but for everyone. There are a lot more people in the world than just the intellectuals.
Given the decline of literacy, the proliferation of other media, the crisis in humanities education, the collapse of critical standards, and the sheer weight of past failures, how can poets possibly succeed in being heard? Wouldn't it take a miracle?
It doesn't take a miracle. It just takes the guts to step over a line. You want to be read? Get a piece of chalk or a blog and put some poetry where people will see it. It doesn't even have to be yours; if you read rather than write, just copy some of your favorite verse. Worried about literacy? Read aloud, podcast, shoot a video, or otherwise use audio transmission. There are actually subcultures with a thriving oral tradition today. Ignore the "you can't" and "poetry isn't" and "no" and all that baloney. You can and it is and yes and people are.
So go do something about it.
American poetry now belongs to a subculture. No longer part of the mainstream of artistic and intellectual life, it has become the specialized occupation of a relatively small and isolated group.
This academic subculture of poetry is real and powerful. However, it is not the be-all and end-all of poetry, even just modern American poetry. There is poetry in greeting cards, advertisements, activist chants and signs, pop songs, and plastered all over the internet. People just don't think of that poetry as relevant because they've been told, falsely, that only the ivory tower kind matters. This is nonsense. Poetry in the wild has far more exposure and therefore far more influence. Think outside the box. It's where the poetry is.
As a class poets are not without cultural status. Like priests in a town of agnostics, they still command a certain residual prestige. But as individual artists they are almost invisible.
You are only as invisible as you let yourself be. Retreat to academia if you wish; it's your choice. But you also have the option of spray-painting your poetry on a sign, printing it on bookmarks, scribbling it on your body, chalking it on sidewalks, posting it on your blog, or doing whatever else you can think of to share it with the world. You can put yourself out there as a poet-for-hire if that appeals to you.
What makes the situation of contemporary poets particularly surprising is that it comes at a moment of unprecedented expansion for the art. There have never before been so many new books of poetry published, so many anthologies or literary magazines. Never has it been so easy to earn a living as a poet.
Well that's a mangle of short-sighted ideas. There's nothing surprising or unprecedented here; poetry comes into and out of fashion over the centuries just like most other things do. There have been other booms, although we do enjoy better and cheaper publication options than previous generations. There have been other busts too.
It is not easy to earn a living as a poet now, although it has been in some past times and it is getting easier -- because the bottleneck is broken, and poets can now turn to audiences for support. Editors? Very few of them have money to spend on poetry, and they will tell you this. So go where the money is. Go where the people are. Take some poetry with you.
There are now several thousand college-level jobs in teaching creative writing, and many more at the primary and secondary levels.
That isn't making a living as a POET. That is making a living as a TEACHER. One must be at least arguably adequate at teaching to hold such a position. The standard for poetry is, shall we say, a great deal more lenient. The academic circles of poetry are designed for mutual support, profit, and applause not for the development of technically ept or artistically powerful verse.
Not long ago, "only poets read poetry" was meant as damning criticism. Now it is a proven marketing strategy.
The bigger your potential target audience, the bigger your potential profit. You can choose to market your work to a niche, and this can work especially if that niche is underserved so there is minimal competition. But don't paint yourself into a corner. If your poetry is capably written and deals with a topic that interests people, they can be hooked into it even if they "don't like poetry." They'll just say, "but for some reason I like yours."
There is, in fact, little coverage of poetry or poets in the general press.
Anyone can help fix this by writing about poetry, whether critique or review or interview. Also boost the signal for other folks who are doing the same.
Poets are justifiably sensitive to arguments that poetry has declined in cultural importance, because journalists and reviewers have used such arguments simplistically to declare all contemporary verse irrelevant.
The situation is what it is. That doesn't mean you have to agree with it or go along with it. Also, if people think poetry is irrelevant? Their defenses against it are flat down. Poetry remains powerful whether people know it and believe it or not. It plays on the linguistic infrastructure of the brain. Consider what advertisements can do to people who aren't already exposed and thus somewhat immune to them. POW.
Even if great poetry continues to be written, it has retreated from the center of literary life. Though supported by a loyal coterie, poetry has lost the confidence that it speaks to and for the general culture.
Yeah, just ignore that too. You want your poetry to be relevant? Pick topics that speak to and for the general culture. Pick any one or several of the subcultures that the mainstream likes to stomp on, and speak up for those. Teach the under-represented folks that people like them can and do write poetry. It's very subversive. It's also a lot of fun, and sometimes folks will give you money just to poke a bigot in the eye with words.
The established rituals of the poetry world—the readings, small magazines, workshops, and conferences—exhibit a surprising number of self-imposed limitations. Why, for example, does poetry mix so seldom with music, dance, or theater?
Because they're stupid, they've been trained that way, and they're trying to make themselves feel "special" by belonging to a clique with esoteric rules. Scrap it. Mix poetry with whatever excites you. If you're excited, other people are more likely to be excited. Look for things that fascinate people, then put poetry on them or write poetry about you. This will get people interested in poetry.
When institutions evaluate creative artists for employment or promotion, they still must find some seemingly objective means to do so.
Sadly they can't be bothered to do such things as ensure the poet can stick to a meter, follow the rules of a form, identify vital current issues in need of artistic expression, or handle subtle tricks of linguistics to charm the ear. So they look at who writes the most stuff. The result is all too often an ivory tower full of top-notch birdcage liner.
The proliferation of literary journals and presses over the past thirty years has been a response less to an increased appetite for poetry among the public than to the desperate need of writing teachers for professional validation. Like subsidized farming that grows food no one wants, a poetry industry has been created to serve the interests of the producers and not the consumers.
So for a while, people just ignored poetry because it was boring. And then the internet happened. People who liked poetry suddenly had a much easier way to share it. There is poetry ALL OVER the internet. Sure, a lot of it is self-published junk, but that's okay. If you write lots and lots, eventually you do tend to get better. The people who are good tend to build up an audience. Now there's a lot more poetry going on outside the ivory towers, which is a good thing.
The new poet makes a living not by publishing literary work but by providing specialized educational services. Most likely he or she either works for or aspires to work for a large institution—usually a state-run enterprise, such as a school district, a college, or a university (or lately even a hospital or prison)—teaching others how to write poetry or, on the highest levels, how to teach others how to write poetry.
Most of them do an execrable job at all of that. This is because genuine talent is downright threatening in an institutional environment. So, avoid the institutions. It's okay to take some poetry classes if you can find those that are more constructive than destructive. But it's not necessary. Read widely, write often, trust your instincts, explore the world, and cycle input into output. That's life, that's art, that's poetry. Pleasing a committee? That's a good way to put beans on the table, but a lousy way to make great literature.
As Wallace Stevens once observed, "The purpose of poetry is to contribute to man's happiness." Children know this essential truth when they ask to hear their favorite nursery rhymes again and again.
That's because many nursery rhymes are tiny little gems of linguistic brilliance. "Pattycake, Pattycake" for example has the three unvoiced stopped consonants (p, t, k) of English in order of articulation from the front to the back of the mouth. The human brain thinks this is really cool. It feels good in your head to bounce those sounds through your mouth. That's why the nursery rhyme sticks in your memory and is fun.
Write some poetry like that and if you do it well enough, people will love it. Think Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein. Brilliant linguistic content there. The fact that it's marketed to small children is irrelevant. Both the technical merit and the artistic appeal are phenomenal. And "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" will probably be chanted on Mars long after people have forgotten the ivory tower poems of the academic boom.
How does one persuade justly skeptical readers, in terms they can understand and appreciate, that poetry still matters?
Simple: write poems about things that people already care about. Then put that poetry somewhere they will see it. The subject will hook them. Later they may be surprised that they liked poetry, but you can still get an amazing amount of eyeballs this way. Make poetry not just for intellectuals, but for everyone. There are a lot more people in the world than just the intellectuals.
Given the decline of literacy, the proliferation of other media, the crisis in humanities education, the collapse of critical standards, and the sheer weight of past failures, how can poets possibly succeed in being heard? Wouldn't it take a miracle?
It doesn't take a miracle. It just takes the guts to step over a line. You want to be read? Get a piece of chalk or a blog and put some poetry where people will see it. It doesn't even have to be yours; if you read rather than write, just copy some of your favorite verse. Worried about literacy? Read aloud, podcast, shoot a video, or otherwise use audio transmission. There are actually subcultures with a thriving oral tradition today. Ignore the "you can't" and "poetry isn't" and "no" and all that baloney. You can and it is and yes and people are.
So go do something about it.
