January 13, 2006

• I like the review! I think it does segue into actual poetry, especially in that last stanza. And the guy has a point. I was going to type something about there being depressingly little good poetry being written these days, but then I thought: "Except here! Here we r0xx0r!"
• The MeFi thread is pretty funny though. A lot of people are really mad that Billy Collins is so popular. Which seems to miss the point because it's light poetry not life-changing verse.
• I don't know what it's for really, but here's a "New York Times Link Generator" I found on the Internets today.
• StoryBored, I've seen that poem you reference, and I really do like it-- my problem with Billy Collins isn't the lightness of his verse, but the monotonous rhythm of his language. The Times reviewer nailed him beautifully on that. Hooray for popular poetry! I just wish it was GOOD popular poetry... where's Ogden Nash when you need him?
• Where indeed?
• You're right, speedlime, the rhythm's a bit McRegular. But on the other hand, you could argue that it's just part of his style. Ogden Nash I've liked since grade school but you could just as easily lampoon his somewhat predictable rhyming devices.
• P.Athena, they've removed many of those Nash poems from that site for copyright reasons...sadly.
• Aaaarrggghhhhh... denied my Nash! Denied!!!!! sorry. I get cranky when denied my Nash.
• *rushes in* *recites* "Reflections on a Wicked World by Ogden Nash. Purity is obscurity"
• *whew* Thanks, StoryBored! (On an upbeat note, the first of my two links still seems to work.)
• Drat! StoryBored beat me... I was about to rush in with: I don't like eels except as meals and the way they feels Speaking of grade school memories, PA, remember having to sing that in Glee Club?
• oh, yes.
• I think Billy Collins is great. There, I said it.
• I agree with him. Collins is a good poet. Suck it, you haters.
• Aye, bone. Billy Collins is a skillful and accomplished poet, and he makes what he does seem easy, wherein lies a deal of his artistry and technical expertise. I admire the hell out of him, as a poet and a human being. The MeFi thread: am still trying to get through it -- frankly, got steamed reading the first part. BE WARNED: what follows comes hot from the forge of my redhead's temper. Anyone who refers to Billy Collins as an academic poet is abysmally uninformed (and ipso facto a self-proclained fathead who's opinion's not to be taken seriously). Some commentators even failed to grasp the fact that for decades Collins was only able to get his poems published in non-academically-centred magazines in the US. And counted himself fortunate to be able to do that. Ach, paugh! Enough o' this fools' blather. ...[Slightly calmer, having let the preview sit onscreen for a bit.] Discussions of poetry, if they are to have much value at all, are best when specifically related to a particular poem or to examples from various poems. In short, don't generalize about a man's output over a lifetime unless you're prepared to point to specifiv places where some particlar group of words work or fail to work, etc. Talk technical to me, baby, gimme some facts, Or suffer the consequences.
• **stands up, waves pom-pom** You go, bees!
• You guys act as if poets were rival football teams or something. What we need are more poets and fewer polticians in this world. Oh, and don't forget the current U.S. Poet Laureate: Ted Kooser.
• Oh, no! Well, I'm an ass/arse not a Noble hoss/Horse. My thinking right now (if I dare call it that) is that it's pointless and futile to rail here on MoFi about the deficiencies of posters in other blgs/forums/ongoing-graffiti-collections. And I am now resolved to never, ever do it again. Hive been a bad bee, and I apologize to all for inflicting this drivel on you.
• err...that would be politicians.
• MonkeyFilter: What we need are more poets and fewer polticians.... Discussions of poetry, if they are to have much value at all, are best when specifically related to a particular poem or to examples from various poems. Never apologize, Bees. Monkeys! Listen up! This is the Poet Lariet speaking here.
• speedlime, I'm glad ye posted this -- including the MeFi link, now that I've managed to read through all of it. definitely get better as it went along. Most encouraging to see so many folk interested in poetry. Thank you.
• MonkeyFilter: What we need are more poets and fewer polticians.... 'Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world', Shelley, Defence of Poetry
• I don't know ... wouldn't it be better if politicians and poets were one and the same? I kind of dig seeing people get as excited about poetry as about football. If Eleanor Brown were in the playoffs, I'd cheer for her.
• Billy Collins writes clear, brief poetry, and many people are impatient with his poems because they seem too easy to understand and too obvious. However,I teach English to sixth graders, and my kids (I read them a poem every day and we discuss them, everything from "Dover Beach" and "My Father's Waltz" to "Children's Story" by Slick Rick) have a really hard time understanding his poems. The appearance of ease is deceptive.
• The appearance of ease is deceptive Good point. It's difficult to make something easy. You guys act as if poets were rival football teams or something. What we need are more poets and fewer polticians in this world. What about a posse of poet commandos eh? Bees, Pallas, Bluey, and me we could take out that MeFi thread, establish a poetic perimeter. Take prisoners, demand penance.
• /loads up with spondee pellets /readies emergency stash of capital letters, punctuation marks
• Ooooh, now I'm having a distinctly Thursday Next tingle about this whole discussion. Quick, Pallas Athena! To the Prose Portal! And bees-- glad you enjoyed the MeFi discussion! I don't feel quite edumacated enough (at least in literature) to hold my own in a conversation about poetry, but I like reading what y'all supergeniuses have to say about it.
• What about a posse of poet commandos eh? Like iambs to the slaughter ...
• You have outdone yourself there, sir. I tip my hat to you.
• quid's on a roll today. Is it because of his date tonight?
• Like iambs to the slaughter ... Smile when ya say that, stranger. I see a lotta talk, but d'ya walk the walk? *turns and fires poetry pistol!*
• Poets, priests and politicians Have words to thanks for their positions Words that scream for your submission Noone's jamming their transmission
• Untitled To my grandaughters who visited the Holocaust Museum on the day of the burial of Yitzak Rabin, November 6 1995. Now you know the worst we humans have to know about ourselves, and I am sorry, for I know you will be afraid. To those of our bodies given withoiut pity to be burned, I know there is no answer but loving one another even our enemies, and this is hard. But remember: when a man of war becomes a man of peace he gives a light, divine though it is also human. When a man of peace is killed by a man of war, he gives a light. You do not have to walk in darkness. If you have the courage for love, you may walk in light. It will be the light of those who have suffered for peace. It will be your light. -- Wendell Berry
• The Poet Taken from A Checklist To Aid in the Detection of Learning Disablitites Loses his position on worksheet or page in textbook May speak much but makes little sense Cannot give clear verbal instructions Does not understand what he reads Does not understand what he hears Cannot handle "yes-no" questions Has great difficulty interpreting proverbs Has difficulty recalling what he ate for breakfast, etc. Cannot tell a story from a picture Cannot recognize visual absurdities Has difficulty classifyiong and categorizing objects Has difficulty retaining such things as addition and subtraction facts, or multiplication tables May recognize a word one day and not the next -- Tom Wayman
• That's a great found poem, bees. Tip o' the hat to Tom W. for finding that one!
• New Stanzas for Amazing Grace I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless place Where I was lost alone Folk looked right through me into space And passed with eyes of stone O homeless hand on many a street Accept this change from me A friendly smile or word is sweet As fearless charity Woe workingman who hears the cry And cannot spare a dime Nor look into a homeless eye Afraid to give the time So rich or poor no gold to talk A smile upon your face The homeless ones where you may walk Receive amazing grace I dreamed I dwelled in a homeless place Where I was lost alone Folk looked right through me into space And passed with eyes of stone -- Allen Ginsberg
• Who the Meek Are Not Not the bristle-bearded Igors bent under burlap sacks, not peasants knee-deep in the rice paddy muck, nor the serfs whose quarter-moon sickles make the wheat fall in waves they don't get to eat. My friend the Franciscan nun says we misread the word meek in the Bible verse that blesses them. To understand the meek (she says) picture a great stallion at full gallop in a meadow, who -- at his master's voice -- seizes up to a stunned but instant halt. So with the strain of holding that great power in check, the muscles along the arched neck keep eddying, and only the velvet ears prick forward, awaiting the next order. -- Mary Karr
• Interesting bees - I wonder what the scholarly view of that passage is. (Although I love the imagery)
• That's amazing, Bees. *begins chanting MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE. MORE.
• Zombie Hat Greatest thing since Texas toast, the ever-popular zombie hat flies off the shelf like sandwich loaf. For your tete-a-tete with a headhunter, or chat with a shrink, zombie hat's the right think. You'll look like a hero in your zombie sombrero. Don't forget to wear your hat. It's what the head cheese ordered, stat. Statistics show the zombie hat helps to maintain social stasis. With the right fit, you'll brim with social graces. We recommend it for all our head cases. Meet every problem head on, so long as you keep a lid on. -- Harryette Mullen
• A Cat Edward Thomas She had a name among the children; But no one loved though someone owned Her, locked out of doors at bedtime And had her kittens duly drowned. In Spring, nevertheless, this cat Ate blackbirds, thrushes, nightingales, And birds of bright voice and plume and flight, As well as scraps from neighbours' pails. I loathed and hated her for this; One speckle on a thrush's breast Was worth a million such; and yet She lived long, till God gave her rest.
• Sad truth: Domestic cats are the main cause of declining songbird populations.
• There's one subject in lyric poetry, and that is that you have this existence and at the end of it you're going to experience non-existence. -- Billy Collins
• Ye be then ye don't be.
• but if I bee then I don't bee I might lack memory of all that or merely exist alternatively something like Schroedinger's either-or cat
• Schroedinger's bee?
• Ernest Hilbert, who also briefly dismisses Ogden Nash, on the deficiencies of Billy Collins. Some days it seems there can be no fun in being a humourist.
• Collins interviewed here, discusses his poems and how he creates them.
• Wonder how they feel about A. E. Housman.
• I think I am in love with AE Housman, Which puts me in a worse than usual fix. No woman ever stood a chance with Housman And he's been dead since 1936. --Wendy Cope (obligatory)