Rabblerabblerabble
How I have to bite my tongue every time people start talking about poetry!
And then how I worry I am becoming horrible and elitist and who knows what, over-intellectualizing it!
But but but!
There's nothing wrong with saying "when I write poetry I only like form x" or "it just doesn't work for me if it isn't rhyming" or "blah blah blah free verse stupid" or "blah blah blah rhymed verse stupid" or "poetry is therapeutic for me"...
WAIT YES THERE IS! Shit! Kind of.
(Ok discounting therapeutic whatever, as long as you keep it in your journal and recognize when it's just crap you had to get out of your head, I guess I can't care whether it's in prose or poetry or morse fucking code, but)
It's just that poetry bears thinking about. (I suppose the same arguments and my sputtering can be reformulated for art and god knows what else) How can anyone discount giant chunks of literature because they rhyme, or because they don't, or because they're too modern or too formal or too anything... ? How can the words themselves not interest you, the organicism of their interaction ?? Some stuff's just bad or boring. But... it's just...
Ok, here. Fine, you like couplets, or sonnets, or strung-out totally unplanned free-verse. Ok. But why? And what happens if you do something else? How can you tweak the one thing and arrive at another? What is the division between the one and the other? Oh: the one and the other! While we're at it! You think we're grasping your meaning?? You think you can even manage to mean? What are you doing when you think you're meaning? These words are not yours! And I bet they're not doing what you think they are! And what is your form doing to them? How does your poem breathe or move or grow? It does! How does it fit together? How does the word reach the meaning, how do we understand?
This is all over the place. I just mean... I just... hugeness! and process! and motion!
Are you thinking about this? How can you not be all the time? How can you write anything off like that? How can you not be concerned?? How can you not want to learn everything possible about philosophy of language and science of language and language learning and linguistics and the history of language and and and and! How does it work? And look what I can do with it! Oh man.
I suspect this is the kind of enthusiasm I am supposed to have for political and social action, and the kind of dismay I am supposed to have for other people's disregard for it. Instead: language! Instead!
I guess just because someone mentions that they only like a certain form or poet, it doesn't mean they want to engage in a exhaustive conversation about language mechanisms and poetics and wacko theories, so I bite my tongue. But: damn! Why limit? What? Absorption, discussion, deploy! Don't be lame!!!
And then how I worry I am becoming horrible and elitist and who knows what, over-intellectualizing it!
But but but!
There's nothing wrong with saying "when I write poetry I only like form x" or "it just doesn't work for me if it isn't rhyming" or "blah blah blah free verse stupid" or "blah blah blah rhymed verse stupid" or "poetry is therapeutic for me"...
WAIT YES THERE IS! Shit! Kind of.
(Ok discounting therapeutic whatever, as long as you keep it in your journal and recognize when it's just crap you had to get out of your head, I guess I can't care whether it's in prose or poetry or morse fucking code, but)
It's just that poetry bears thinking about. (I suppose the same arguments and my sputtering can be reformulated for art and god knows what else) How can anyone discount giant chunks of literature because they rhyme, or because they don't, or because they're too modern or too formal or too anything... ? How can the words themselves not interest you, the organicism of their interaction ?? Some stuff's just bad or boring. But... it's just...
Ok, here. Fine, you like couplets, or sonnets, or strung-out totally unplanned free-verse. Ok. But why? And what happens if you do something else? How can you tweak the one thing and arrive at another? What is the division between the one and the other? Oh: the one and the other! While we're at it! You think we're grasping your meaning?? You think you can even manage to mean? What are you doing when you think you're meaning? These words are not yours! And I bet they're not doing what you think they are! And what is your form doing to them? How does your poem breathe or move or grow? It does! How does it fit together? How does the word reach the meaning, how do we understand?
This is all over the place. I just mean... I just... hugeness! and process! and motion!
Are you thinking about this? How can you not be all the time? How can you write anything off like that? How can you not be concerned?? How can you not want to learn everything possible about philosophy of language and science of language and language learning and linguistics and the history of language and and and and! How does it work? And look what I can do with it! Oh man.
I suspect this is the kind of enthusiasm I am supposed to have for political and social action, and the kind of dismay I am supposed to have for other people's disregard for it. Instead: language! Instead!
I guess just because someone mentions that they only like a certain form or poet, it doesn't mean they want to engage in a exhaustive conversation about language mechanisms and poetics and wacko theories, so I bite my tongue. But: damn! Why limit? What? Absorption, discussion, deploy! Don't be lame!!!
posted by stower at 1:35 PM
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