Poetry and Class

[Nat]

I have been surprised to learn through poetry lecture podcasts how very many published, well-known poets were pretty much what I consider part of the elite. I know this thread is very specific, but I hope to be researching the biographical facts about well-known poets. So I will be back when I have some moments to write and research more.

[dark_crystal]

1. i think that's true of any art, because the gatekeepers (publishers/gallerists, etc.) are elite. You don't need an MFA to write, but you do to edit, so the editors have had their ears trained, and they best hear those who speak to that training

2. that is part of why rap, and later slam, was/is so revolutionary

[SoNotHer]

Poetry has long been an act of revolution, and poets have come from and worked outside of a class for as long.

I don't have an iPhone or iPod, but I would be interested in what podcasts you're listening to, Nat.

I once listened to a heated debate among poets about a popular poet (working class background) with Nazi sympathies. He and his poetry received a real post-mortem dissection and evisceration.

I don't like Nazis, and I'm sorry he was so misguided. But I like his poetry. And as I suggested in that discussion, if we're going to start thinning out the canon because someone was a wife beater, and someone else was an adulterer, and someone else was queer, and someone else was just nasty, and other folks came from a class other than our own, then we're going to get down to a very small number of readable folks and maybe zero.

What I find more amazing is the amount of people who proclaim they write poetry and don't actually read or listen to other people's poetry. In fact, a student recently told me that he not only didn't read/listen to other poetry but that he didn't need to. And here I thought we were all teachers and students, poets and readers, artists and audiences, changing roles in an interconnected universe.

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

What I find more amazing is the amount of people who proclaim they write poetry and don't actually read or listen to other people's poetry. In fact, a student recently told me that he not only didn't read/listen to other poetry but that he didn't need to. And here I thought we were all teachers and students, poets and readers, artists and audiences, changing roles in an interconnected universe.

this shocks me too. in art school, one of the worst adjectives you could hear at critique was "derivative." How can you avoid this if you have no idea what anyone else is doing?

another thing that shocks me is the perception of "self-expression" as being the purpose of art. Like, the "artist" feels that if they got their feelings out and onto the page/canvas/etc, the piece is successful- without considering whether there is anything for the viewer/reader to take away from their experience of it.

both of these are really good reasons to get schooling in your art, which does elevate you to elite status

[Apocalipstic]

To have the time to write and try to publish poetry (which usually does not make much money) seems to kind of put it in a elite place.

Of course there are exceptions.

Not to have to go to work every day, take care of children and home, scamble to survive...would give way more time to spend writing poetry.

[SoNotHer]

Brilliantly said. Yes, I get tired or reincarnations of belly lint analysis. Show me something recklessly brave, different, and reaching and yet conscious of the web within which it weaves, and I'm in. Treat this like a personal therapy session with line breaks, and I'm outta here.

I compare jazz to so many things because it's such a beautiful, clear example. You imitate the greats. You memorize the chord changes, the riffs, the tempos. And you do this and do this. And then you do your thing. When did we ever stop believing we needed a deeper connection bigger than us and greater than us? If you act like you live in a vacuum or a void and that poetry, art and music didn't exist until you came along, why would I read, see or listen to your work?

Originally Posted by dark_crystal

this shocks me too. in art school, one of the worst adjectives you could hear at critique was "derivative." How can you avoid this if you have no idea what anyone else is doing?

another thing that shocks me is the perception of "self-expression" as being the purpose of art. Like, the "artist" feels that if they got their feelings out and onto the page/canvas/etc, the piece is successful- without considering whether there is anything for the viewer/reader to take away from their experience of it.

both of these are really good reasons to get schooling in your art, which does elevate you to elite status

[Apocalipstic]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Brilliantly said. Yes, I get tired or reincarnations of belly lint analysis. Show me something recklessly brave, different, and reaching and yet conscious of the web within which it weaves, and I'm in. Treat this like a personal therapy session with line breaks, and I'm outta here.

I compare jazz to so many things because it's such a beautiful, clear example. You imitate the greats. You memorize the chord changes, the riffs, the tempos. And you do this and do this. And then you do your thing. When did we ever stop believing we needed a deeper connection bigger than us and greater than us? If you act like you live in a vacuum or a void and that poetry, art and music didn't exist until you came along, why would I read, see or listen to your work?

The arrogance of youth!

[dark_crystal]

Originally Posted by SoNotHer

Treat this like a personal therapy session with line breaks, and I'm outta here.

not that therapy through creative expression isn't wooonderful! but you shouldn't try to get people to pay money for the product