In Praise Of The Praise Of Poetry

[Liar]

Thought some of you might get a kick out of this.

/L

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New Literary Art Form Discovered!
In praise of the praise of poetry.
By Ron Rosenbaum
Posted Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, at 5:48 PM ET

I believe I've discovered a previously unrecognized genre of contemporary writing that deserves commendation for its distinctiveness and frequent excellence. It's practiced mainly by contemporary poets, but it's not poetry. In fact—at least for me—it's much better than most contemporary poetry, in the sense that it's much more readable, much better crafted, and often beautifully compressed in a dazzling haikulike way.

It's something that gives people like me who don't find themselves drawn to much contemporary poetry a sense of the verbal facility of contemporary poets—and contemporary poetry critics—when they're writing prose about contemporary poetry.

The past century has taught us that good writing can appear in unexpected forms: film scripts, Sopranos-type series, the storytelling of R. Crumb or Art Spiegelman, for instance. And writing about poetry, particularly praising contemporary poetry, is a fine but extremely difficult art. It has to distill the presumed poetic genius of the writer being praised in a way that at the very least equals the supposed brilliance of the work itself. So in a way it's more elevated than prose; it's prose-poetry (remember that?) about poetry.

Long thing, read the rest here.

 

[Angeline]

Thought some of you might get a kick out of this.

/L

---------------------------

New Literary Art Form Discovered!
In praise of the praise of poetry.
By Ron Rosenbaum
Posted Friday, Sept. 5, 2008, at 5:48 PM ET

I believe I've discovered a previously unrecognized genre of contemporary writing that deserves commendation for its distinctiveness and frequent excellence. It's practiced mainly by contemporary poets, but it's not poetry. In fact—at least for me—it's much better than most contemporary poetry, in the sense that it's much more readable, much better crafted, and often beautifully compressed in a dazzling haikulike way.

It's something that gives people like me who don't find themselves drawn to much contemporary poetry a sense of the verbal facility of contemporary poets—and contemporary poetry critics—when they're writing prose about contemporary poetry.

The past century has taught us that good writing can appear in unexpected forms: film scripts, Sopranos-type series, the storytelling of R. Crumb or Art Spiegelman, for instance. And writing about poetry, particularly praising contemporary poetry, is a fine but extremely difficult art. It has to distill the presumed poetic genius of the writer being praised in a way that at the very least equals the supposed brilliance of the work itself. So in a way it's more elevated than prose; it's prose-poetry (remember that?) about poetry.

Long thing, read the rest here.

Merci! Great article and I bookmarked The Page. I am unfamiliar with many of the poets mentioned, and some I do know don't "speak" to me enough for the blurbies to resonate with me. And then I read:

Their giddiness in the face of despair, their animal pleasure in gossip, their false bravado, their frantic posturing and guilelessness and petty snobberies—and these were O'Hara's virtues—give us as much of a life as poetry can.—William Logan, the New York Times

and totally got it. So now I think my task for the weekend will be to try to write one about a poem I love, that says something essential to me. Maybe The Wild Swans at Coole.