Diary of a Mad Editor

Archive for June 17th, 2008

An Example of a Poem That Rocks

This performance piece by Talaam Acey kicks ass! The man has something to say and says it well. He knows how to get out of the way of his own poem.

An Example of Poetry That Sucks

Jesus Fucking Christ! This kid is not now, nor will he ever be a poet or writer of any kind. I thought this video would never end.

Poetry is Best Which Poets Least

People often ask me what makes for a good poem. It’s not so easy to answer. To merely say that, “I know it when I see it,” is a cop-out. Because we all know it when we see it — and we all have reasons for believing in what we see, even if we cannot articulate it in the moment.

There is a level at which all writing is objective — you know: spelling, using the wrong word when another would be better, too many words, or not enough. That objective part of writing is the smallest, most insignificant part. Just proofreading and copyediting.

The subjective part is what’s hard to pin down. Difficult, but not impossible.

I read poems all the time — both unpublished (and probably never will be published) poems and those published in journals that I just don’t much like. I don’t like them and I’m always pondering why I don’t like them.

In each and every case, those poets just couldn’t get out of their own damn way! Some of these poets are unskilled, unschooled amateurs. Some are academics with learned degrees. And some are those self-proclaimed outlaw poets. Their poems are all fat and ego and all their words serve themselves and their own persona and a genuine poem that clicks with an audience never emerges.

With the amateur poets, there’s usually a desire to express some emotion or other. Someone’s “soul is bleeding” or “heart is broken”. All triteness aside, their poems only ask of the audience that they sympathize with the poet. There is no connection made with the audience. The academic essentially does the same thing — only it’s a graver crime against good poetry because that poet fucking well knows better. Instead of trite language, he’ll throw up complicated metaphors — using language as intellectual tripwires to create barriers to the poem rather than free the poem to be born. And the “outlaw” — well, the bad wannabe outlaw can’t get past the desire to be seen as a poetic badass. Everything in the poem is about the poet and what a badass he is and how the world can’t handle what a badass he is. Always, always whining about how misunderstood he is: WAHWAHWAH . . . fuckfuckityfuckfuckfuck . . .WAHWAHWAH!”

A good poem transcends the mastabutory nature of self-expression.

A good poem rings true — an immediately recognizable truth that almost any audience on any given day can look at and say, “yeah, I get that,” even if that truth was previously alien to that audience.

A good poem has its own agenda, it takes center stage. Think of a poet like a roadie on a rock tour — he sets up the equipment, then goes backstage and lets the band play uninterrupted.

Now, I’m not saying I’m perfect or consistently write good poems. All poets write bad poems occasionally. Sometimes the temptation is too great! Although, it’s important to understand that the best at poetry are those that poet the least.