the craft of poetry

[billy]

[Aish]

"once upon a time, newspapers regularly printed poems, as well as popular magazines. " = AGREED. I think it's sad this doesn't happen often anymore. There are a few publications (The New Yorker, etc) who still print poems, but I find most of them ghastly as well as what I've read from supposedly "academic" tomes.


I like Slam poetry. I am also a big fan of what I will term "visual slam poetry" b/c I don't really know what to call it, and when my friend first saw mine, that's what he called it. I will see about posting a piece or two later today.

I also really like found poetry and poetry collage, of which I have a few examples of as well.

[billy]

looking forward to hearing/seeing it.

[Leanne]

"once upon a time, newspapers regularly printed poems, as well as popular magazines. " = AGREED. I think it's sad this doesn't happen often anymore. There are a few publications (The New Yorker, etc) who still print poems, but I find most of them ghastly as well as what I've read from supposedly "academic" tomes.

Aaargh! Most of the poems published in The New Yorker are generic pulp poetasting bullshit -- and that's just the best ones. Able Muse, qarrtsiluni, soundzine and a few other online publications occasionally publish some daring, innovative work but sadly, most good print journals fell victim to the financial crisis as they were always working on very slim to nonexistent margins.

[billy]

i'm not well up on the publishing of poetry as i get all i need from the web.

[Leanne]

That's why published poets make no money :p

[billy]

i've bought a few books and then binned them of gave them to the charity shop.....mostly it's worse poetry than you get in forums
i had the complete works of Shakespeare and never looked at it for many years. when i did finally peek i was amazed...with the plays, most of his sonnets i thought crap. now i see them as yesteryears chart toppers. i've had people buy me numerous small books of love poetry for some reason hehe. of which my favourite poem was "she walks in beauty" i love that poem.
i've seen poetry published in reader's digest and other things but never read it. it's weird but if i read outside of the net it has to be news or a good book of non poetry. on here i can read oddles of the stuff. isn't it a bit like art. unless you die or find a gallery to host your work you starve in some flea bitten garret along the Thames or seine, or in your case Sydney harbour

[Wildcard]

If I may, I would like to add something.
Many people that are considered well spoken automatically think (or are even pushed by friends) that they should be able to immediately write poetry. Until recently, I thought that my love for words was enough. It is not.
I spent a long time on my first few poems; I edited them and 'corrected' problems. With a serious investment, I became so attached to my words that anything other than praise was received poorly on my part. I never read poetry of any kind other than a book called 'Love Poems' by Charles Ghigna.
Maybe people grab a guitar or some other instrument and play whatever they can learn and because no one around them is any better, the amateur reviews are much too kind. This leads the instrumentalist to think that they have something special that only needs practice. In turn, these would-be musicians are very similar to the 'poets' that never learn, but produce. Imo

[Leanne]

Yep, that's it exactly -- it's the same with voice, as the various Pop Idol incarnations prove. Just as sounding kind of nice in the shower does not make you a singer, being able to put a few words down on a page doesn't make you a poet. It does, possibly, mean that you're on your way if you put in the effort and take the time to learn from both your peers and your (current) superiors (who you may well surpass, if you're as great a genius as you believe, but you haven't managed it yet). (Not you specifically AA, obviously you're an incredible genius and I'd never suggest such a thing :p)

[Wildcard]

Haha 'genius'!? Only when it comes to sex
Having seen my ignorance, I understand freshly the misconceptions associated with this noble craft. Subconsciously people think that poets are just wordsmiths, but never considered that there is more to poetry than the words.

[Leanne]

It's possible that once in the very, very long history of poetry someone has written a poem that was amazingly brilliant first go, without really working at it... but if that's so, it's been forgotten. Look in the secret hiding places of anyone whose poems seem effortlessly incredible and you'll find reams and reams of failed attempts, practise exercises and mediocrity.

[billy]

like any craft. it seldom gets mastered completely. i feel lucky that i managed to do two poems (i think) that were actually something i was proud of, let alone good. AA is a good example; i heard one of his songs and it's a lot better than average. it even sounds professional in general though the majority of songs done by unknowns and wannabe pop idols are shittier than our worst poetry hehe. i think the underlining thing we all have in common is that most have tried to write a song and most have tried to write a poem. in general our first attempt sucked hairy balls.

not just saying this but on this site we have some good singer songwriters and some good poets that we can measure ourselves against. and may i add, it's no shame if in doing so we come up short. it only shows us how high we can aim and how much we can achieve.