How a Poetry MFA benefits the common consumer:

[Bouvre]

http://www.cosmopolitan.com/sex-love/a51823/a-harvard-poetry-professor-reviews-haiku-i-got-sent-on-tinder/

[Admin]

Poetry is one of those things that feels like it's been trampled by the times. 

 

I think there's something in a culture of immediate gratification that flies in the face of having to think about something.  Whether that's a verse or a picture.

 

 

[Bouvre]

I have a lot of feelings regarding the place of poetry,

from standardized analysis despite continuously shifting forms of thought and style,

to the mark of instant gratification on poetry (instagram poets, tumblr poets).

 

but this article is one of my favorite things. Irreverent, but fun.

[Opium]

Poetry works as a function of mystery to me. But as a form of expression, it never satisfies as it's something that works best under technicalities than off the wall emotion... at least generally. Of course there is always an exception, especially in post-modernism.

 

But for me, as a reader, I've drifted far from being amused by poetry. I've found lyrical prose to be more effective currently.

[Bouvre]

I think I know what you mean by "a function of mystery," but would it be all right if you elaborated?

I'm in agreement with pretty much everything here, at least in terms of what works for me in poetry (the craft as expression of emotion, as opposed to the expression of emotion as craft).

I'm definitely a fan of lyrical prose, too. And so much of what I've learned about the rhythm of writing fiction came from poetry.

 

[Opium]

Hell yeah,

What I mean by function of mystery is that poetry, for me, always ends initially with the question "what the fuck did I just read" more often than straight comprehension of the text. I think by design poetry is supposed to be analyzed and deconstructed to discern its meaning, usually always existing on different levels with different intent - even when a poem is straightforward and seemingly obvious. I suppose by structure it's meant to be questioned. It's always struggling to say something, even when the words its using are beautiful.

 

As a reader/writer, and as a person, I struggle to say things myself, and I think this is why I don't respond as well to poetry because it's a reflection of myself in other people's words. Lyrical prose can be mysterious but there's often enough of it that you can easily find its point as long as you stick with it. It's a way of talking that can be therapeutic because it's structured to communicate and doesn't necessarily call to be deconstructed. It can just be beautiful on its own. Poetry can be too, but I don't think its presented in a manner that welcomes its own independence. It needs the participation of the reader's analysis in order to be made sense of.

[Bouvre]

Gotcha.

Funny enough, my struggle to say things is partially what led me to poetry: a frustration of the disconnect between thought and language, or thing and language, but the necessity of language because... well, what else we got?

 

However, I disagree with the idea that any text has independence, or that poetry specifically requires participation when prose doesn't. Not to say that it's possible that a text has a specific reason it was written, but the meaning of a book requires an audience to receive it, and sometimes an audience misconstrues or warps whatever was intended, and that warped reception becomes the popular interpretation. In fact, you'll find a lot of folks who argue that the author's intention means absolutely nothing, and is powerless in creating what becomes the meaning of their work. 

 

For example, what place does Alice in Wonderland hold culturally for much of the English-speaking world? How much of that cultural position looks anything like Carroll's conservative lampoon of emerging trends in 19th century mathematics?

Not that Carroll's lampoon doesn't mean anything, but the story has certainly lived as long as it has because it obtained new meanings and significance.

 

 

Poetry's structure does carry a lot of importance. Sometimes the line breaks are for tension. Sometimes a piece rambles on with trivial information to delay the impact of its later lines (which is still tension, but more focused on time than sound). Sometimes it forms an argument (much like Hass and Pinsky's discursive work in the 80s, or early sonnets). But the delivery and presentation of a poem is not unlike how and when we receive information in prose, or who's telling the story and what kind of limitations and distance is exploited by the point-of-view. A good story is often good as it is because of how it's told, and how it's told can contribute to meaning.

 

[Opium]

Ah yes, I believe in all of this as well. I was mostly speaking for myself as a reader/writer and my relationship with poetry and how I consume literature. Objectively speaking, it holds its own and whereas I feel something is missing another will find a million.