Are there subjects inappropriate to poetry -- too ordinary, too lackluster, too dull? My gut instinct is: no.
The poet Karl Shapiro raised this question in one of his classes, whereupon his students challenged him to write a decent poem about manhole covers. They were sure he'd never be able to do it. But look at the result:
MANHOLE COVERS
The beauty of manhole covers--what of that?
Like medals struck by a great savage khan,
Like Mayan calendar stones, unliftable, indecipherable,
Not like the old electrum, chased and scored,
Mottoed and sculptured to a turn,
But notched and whelked and pocked and smashed
With the great company names
(Gentle Bethlehem, smiling United States).
This rustproof artifact of my street,
Long after roads are melted away will lie
Sidewise in the grave of the iron-old world,
Bitten at the edges,
Strong with its cryptic American,
Its dated beauty.
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Your challenge: write a good poem, a ponderable poem, about an unlikely topic of your choice. Or make it silly, what the hay?
You may also throw out a challenge to other members. Offer a topic you think is poetically impossible.
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