Comments on: How Pretentious Can Poetry Be?

By: the poet

the poet — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 13:13:54 +0000

Paul, I think some people are pretentious about the word ‘confused’.

By: paul

paul — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 10:27:14 +0000

I think people are confused a lot of the time with the word ‘pretentious’. I think that most of the time, when people write difficult things, it isn’t to assert some unwarranted personal greatness, it’s just because they’re trying to write something original, which I personally think everyone should be striving for. And obviously, to write something original, you have to break out some new terms and phrases, as well as new subjects to write about of course. I don’t mean to make you sound stupid, but your use of the word pretentious isn’t really accurate here, and you used it like a thousand times.

By: the poet

the poet — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 02:13:09 +0000

@ G.M. Thanks. I really like Strongverse. Perhaps I’ll submit something over there one of these days. The last paragraph is a jab at the “hyper” accessible crowd. “Accessibility” is the new catch-phrase. In their attempt to not be arcane, some contemporary poets strive to be accessible and make a big show of this. I don’t. I simply try to write good poems and if some people don’t understand them, well, then those poems aren’t written for those people. Sorry. I don’t understand calculus. It doesn’t mean it isn’t useful.

@ Justin, thanks. Poetry is not always personal. Yes, poets should strive to improve their poetry with the right words and images. I don’t know what you mean by “the masses.” If you write poetry that can be appreciated for what it is then you are writing for your audience, whether that be one person or posterity. Thanks for reading.

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:36:00 +0000

First off props on the blog. I like the aestetics and highly personal content. That being said..IMHO, poetry is highly personal so why wouldn’t you make it the best that it can possible be by ommitting or adding words? By upgrading to a more appropriate or better suited simile when it is appropriate?
I don’t know if I could write poetry for the masses. Just thinking about it makes my head spin… probably because I have only focused on creating poetry based on my feelings for one person, so I write a poem for that person.
Anyway, I look forward to your future posts and Ezines.

By: G. M. Palmer

G. M. Palmer — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:47:28 +0000

I don’t see what you mean by the last paragraph, though. Or are you saying that simplicity is the new pretention?

By: G. M. Palmer

G. M. Palmer — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:46:23 +0000

I don’t know how “on” became “of” but please forgive me.

By: G. M. Palmer

G. M. Palmer — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 19:45:34 +0000

Hey Allen,

Interesting post, though of course all rules can be broken (and I’m tempted to write an unpretentious poem that strictly follows all 7 rules [to be arrogant in my humility]).

The new post of strongverse.blogspot.com covers a lot of this material, too. We must be surfing the same brain wave.

Cheers,
GMP

By: the poet

the poet — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:15:21 +0000

No problem, John. Thanks for the prompt. You hit a nerve since the tongue-in-cheek version on your blog actually hits upon some things I’ve written about in the past. Thanks for the comment.

By: John Hewitt

John Hewitt — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:45:53 +0000

Thanks for the mention and the legitimate analysis of my humorous suggestions.

By: the poet

the poet — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:03:22 +0000

I think you have to know your audience. I’d say there is a market for everything.

I had a fiction workshop instructor in college who told the class one day, “My goal is to get you to walk out of here and moon me.” I took that to mean that whatever he told us we shouldn’t do that we should do it anyway and do it so well that he’d never tell another class that they can’t do it. I did my best to break every rule he gave, some with success and some not so. All literature is the act of breaking somebody else’s rules, and sometimes even your own.