tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post6923502204685649167..comments2024-03-14T08:34:34.769+00:00Comments on litrefs: Pretending to like poetryTim Lovehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-15703911534534194972013-02-27T10:37:23.107+00:002013-02-27T10:37:23.107+00:00You've anticipated a point or 2 that I'm g...You've anticipated a point or 2 that I'm going to make in my next post, so I'll wait until then.<br /><br />Tim Lovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00578925224900533603noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2422112066790651313.post-30820073015419273822013-02-27T05:40:09.383+00:002013-02-27T05:40:09.383+00:00I was reading your comment on Jon Stone’s blog and...I was reading your comment on Jon Stone’s blog and I have to agree with you: most people can’t explain why they like a certain poem. Even fellow poets struggle and it’s far easier to criticise, at least I find that to be the case. I don’t like most of the poetry I read. That doesn’t mean it’s not good, well-written, worthy; I just don’t <i>like</i> it. Nature poetry in particular bores the pants off me. Of course there’s no need for me to be rude about it and if I run across poems like that online I pass by on the other side. I have a terrible habit, as I said to Dave King recently when offering a friendly critique of one of his poems, of wanting to “me-ise” every poem I read. Understanding and appreciating are two different things. My problem with… let’s just call it “difficult” poetry for the moment… is that I don’t know how to approach it and I find—and this applies to artists and composers too—their creators aren’t too keen on explaining how to approach their works so if I don’t get it then it’s my fault. Someone explained to me how to decode sentences, what periods and commas and semicolons and all that crap meant. Thank you. Armed with that knowledge I can read prose and have a fighting chance of understanding it. Then I come across something with no punctuation whatsoever (unless you count a line break as quasi-punctuation) and I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with it. What are the rules for reading? I bought a book of essays by E E Cummings hoping he’d explain how he arrived at his unique typographic layouts but it really wasn’t much help. I distrust things that can’t be explained or, and this applies especially to art, have to be explained.<br /><br />I can see why reviewers might say they like stuff when they don’t and all I can say is shame on them. I’ve just written a review of a book of poetry by Stephen Nelson, some of which I liked and some of which I wasn’t crazy about, like this tiny poem:<br /><br /> mo( )on<br /><br />I think I get it but I’m not sure there’s much to get and I said as much in my review. I don’t hate it but it’s nothing I’d write home about. I’d more to say about his forty-page Ginsberg-esque diatribe but one of the first things I said was how much I (thought I) hated Ginsberg. I have to qualify that statement because I’d really not read much Ginsberg that I hadn’t given up on after a page or so. After researching Ginsberg (specifically ‘Howl’) to write my article I can honestly say I <i>get</i> where he’s coming from (‘understand’ is probably too strong a word) but I still don’t <i>like</i> his poem. Maybe I don’t hate it as much as I thought I did but if someone unearthed a folder full of new poems by him I don’t think I’d get all hot under the collar about it.<br /><br />I do believe very strongly that poetry is a collaborative endeavour and a great poem can be let down by a poor reader just as an uninspiring poem wouldn’t give even the best reader much to work with. I like Marion McCready as a person and I faithfully comment on every draft poem she posts online but, and she would agree wholeheartedly here, I am far from being her ideal reader and she often comments on the fact I read (or at least try to read) her work literally. Others don’t have that problem. The cynic in me thinks they’re just less demanding. Or maybe it’s me that’s uncomfortable with ambiguity—actually ‘dissatisfied’ is probably a better word—and doesn’t bring enough to the poem to make it a more satisfying experience.<br /><br><br />Jim Murdochhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12786388638146471193noreply@blogger.com