Poetry and the Masses

[Wjames]

I saw this discussion touched on in a thread, and thought it might make a good discussion here.

In my own words:

The idea was that poetry is too focused on grammar, structure, and highbrow words to appeal to the 6-7 billion people on this world. What we should do is move to something that appeals to the masses, and is more of a populous approach. This way would say: people like cliches for a reason, people aren't fond of grammar, or using a thesaurus.

If poetry is to be widespread it must come down from its self imposed perch.

I'm not trying to give a straw man argument just represent how I took the message.

My view, poetry has never been popular. If the answer is to lower the bar to gain popularity, I'd rather all poetry burn. I'd rather we all turned on reality TV, and forgot about it. I think this approach makes poetry nothing worth saving.

Art should move you. This insipid dumbing down of poetry wouldn't accomplish that purpose. It would make it no different than Muzak.

Maybe I'm preaching to the choir (cliche for the masses) or maybe I'm not.

Thoughts?

I think this has already happened via pop music; pop music is catchy, dumbed down (not necessarily, but usually) poetry for the masses. I honestly don't know a single person who (openly) likes poetry, or reads enough to have a favorite poem or poet. Everybody does however, have a favorite line or two from songs. I don't really view this as a problem, as I can be moved just as much (or more, with the added impact of music) by a great song as by a great poem. The thing I have an issue with is that most people only ever listen to top 40 crap, thanks to the fame factory that Hollywood's become over the past 30/40 years.