Midnight poetry symposium

Poets will go on and on
They have the stamina to fight
After all the rest have gone

Some praise Chaucer, some praise Donne
Living rivals are heaped with spite
Poets will go on and on

Being brief is seldom done
They drone their woes into the night
After all the rest have gone

"Publishing is one big con
The money making grip's too tight"
Poets will go on and on

Booker, Costa, Orange won,
For novelists the future's bright
After all the rest have gone

They argue over who should write
They have the stamina to fight
Poets will go on and on
After all the rest have gone


25/9/10

A poetry manifesto

I was reading some poetry by a respected poet recently and kept feeling 'This is terrible', 'so what?', 'this makes no sense', and 'And?"  I was going to write a scathing review, and then stopped.  I realised that my problem was, well, my problem: I have an implicit view of what poetry should be and what poets should be aiming to achieve, but others may not share that view.  I know they don't: they are happy with cryptic, fragmented, idiosyncratic statements that leave the reader to do the work of filling in the gaps.  They are happy, but I am not.

My manifesto for poetry is that it should:

1. be expressed in natural language, not using exotic, obscure or archaic language for effect
2. avoid oblique cultural references which may mean little or nothing to readers
3. be expressed in conventional word order
4. give the reader a clue what is happening and why this matters
5. if rhymed, have true rhymes, and much better not rhymed than badly rhymed
6. avoid unnecessary adjectives and adverbs
7. not test the reader's patience
8. avoid 'poetic' diction

Maybe I could start a movement - Poets against Poetry?