11-16-2013, 11:56 AM
Probably 80% of poems posted these days don't pass the barnacle test, i.e. if you can substitute "barnacle" for any given word and the text still makes the same amount of sense, then you have got not poetry, but amphigory.
Many writers seem to be losing sight of the three fundamentals of any writing: know your purpose, audience and context. Perhaps this is largely because people these days tend to write "for themselves" as if their diary entries are going to fascinate the rest of the world. This crime is second only to that of deliberate obfuscation in an attempt to make the writer seem terribly clever and impressive.
Empty vessel, diary or cryptic crossword ≠ poem.
Great poetry has layers and levels that are not immediately obvious, but is not a series of in-jokes or randomly thesaurused phrases. Great poetry should exist independent of its writer and his/her own small circle of experience and influence. Great poetry should demand to be read over and over, not to puzzle it out but to luxuriate in its depths. Great poetry should inspire those who currently do not write great poetry and make them want to build such a monument to humanity.
Alternatively, I'd just as soon read a series of fart jokes. Where's billy when you need him?
Many writers seem to be losing sight of the three fundamentals of any writing: know your purpose, audience and context. Perhaps this is largely because people these days tend to write "for themselves" as if their diary entries are going to fascinate the rest of the world. This crime is second only to that of deliberate obfuscation in an attempt to make the writer seem terribly clever and impressive.
Empty vessel, diary or cryptic crossword ≠ poem.
Great poetry has layers and levels that are not immediately obvious, but is not a series of in-jokes or randomly thesaurused phrases. Great poetry should exist independent of its writer and his/her own small circle of experience and influence. Great poetry should demand to be read over and over, not to puzzle it out but to luxuriate in its depths. Great poetry should inspire those who currently do not write great poetry and make them want to build such a monument to humanity.
Alternatively, I'd just as soon read a series of fart jokes. Where's billy when you need him?
It could be worse