01-10-2020, 12:36 AM
The poets are well-protected, they study the critics, and have a defense for all criticisms; that's called Second Best judo. And they cultivate a quality called Genuine Modesty. If they get angry, they tell you up front, instead of lashing to one side and another. If you killed their children, they'd write poetry about it. Poets are only desperados and lonegunmen in the movies.
Poets rely too heavily on devastating last lines that make middle-aged women sigh with momentary awe on camera. They write about situations of the moment like antiacademic poets, without the burden of being antiacademic, and wrap rape and third world famine in the security of their grandfather's sweater. It used to be their father, but people are living longer. The poets want to be approved of, and so run their poems through workshop environments, since every other poet in the world can't be wrong. And the poets' poems are useful. Socially, businessy, emotionally. They seek a Path of Usefulness, and find it. That path. That's the trouble you mention. You don't care for that path. At least not at the moment.
And by lashing to one side and another, I mean spiteful nonsense. The poets want to be clear and acceptable. The poets are on mood stabilizers or however you spell it. They don't want to be convicted or accused of nonsense or spite. And mostly not spiteful nonsense. The poets want to get by on their merit, not their character. And they have access to merit. They don't have the gall to create a system, though some do. They think of the earth. Many are well-fed and experience satisfactory coitus, as the frenchman said. These are all things about the poets.
Poets rely too heavily on devastating last lines that make middle-aged women sigh with momentary awe on camera. They write about situations of the moment like antiacademic poets, without the burden of being antiacademic, and wrap rape and third world famine in the security of their grandfather's sweater. It used to be their father, but people are living longer. The poets want to be approved of, and so run their poems through workshop environments, since every other poet in the world can't be wrong. And the poets' poems are useful. Socially, businessy, emotionally. They seek a Path of Usefulness, and find it. That path. That's the trouble you mention. You don't care for that path. At least not at the moment.
And by lashing to one side and another, I mean spiteful nonsense. The poets want to be clear and acceptable. The poets are on mood stabilizers or however you spell it. They don't want to be convicted or accused of nonsense or spite. And mostly not spiteful nonsense. The poets want to get by on their merit, not their character. And they have access to merit. They don't have the gall to create a system, though some do. They think of the earth. Many are well-fed and experience satisfactory coitus, as the frenchman said. These are all things about the poets.