I would be interested in finding out why people think this about the Pound poem. The objectors are people I admire very much as poets and editors. Why, gang, do you think this is a poor poem?

DWL

Well, David, I would never call it a poor poem, ever.

All I said was that it did not stand out for me as a clear "masterpiece", since I have read so many finer "two-line poems" (effectively) from great Japanese haiku masters, like Ryokan and Basho & co.

But I would never say a "poor" poem, by any stretch.

Gail, I have the perfect poem for you:


"Metro Spring"

The apparition
of these white chickens

in the crowd, petals
on a wet red wheelbarrow.

--George Bowering


[This message has been edited by Brian Watson (edited February 16, 2008).]

David,
I think the problem is that we place everything into categories.

If I am looking for Donne I won't find it in Pound or Williams.

Surely we have enough flexibility to give these undeniably beautiful images a place? We can call them by some other name but they are perfectly executed according to their own standards. I would hate to be too small and conservative to acknowledge beauty.

I think some poets and editors become pot-bound like plants that have been too long in one place.

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[This message has been edited by Brian Watson (edited July 03, 2008).]

I've never really taken the second line of Pound's poem as the metaphorical vehicle of/for the tenor of the first line. I think that's why he eventually decided the semicolon was the better choice. It's more of an epiphany than any kind of visual comparison, and this is what I also find in a lot of haiku. I also think of the ending of James Wright's "A Blessing," a poem that is admittedly sentimental but which I still like.

I think it's a lot better than that damned wheelbarrow, which (out of its original context) has always struck me as very silly and (in its original context) not much less silly.

But I do have a soft spot for the plums in the ice-box poem, having Friday night ravaged my wife's Valentine chocolates.

I think any painter would tell you all that the poems are images. Enough.
Riveting images. Dramatic visual moments.

Why do poets talk so much ;)?

Why do poets talk so much ;)?


Well, Janet, with 11853 posts to your name, you should be the best among us to answer that one.

:)

But they are all economical.

But they are all economical.

That's true, Janet - you rarely make the long-winded rant-style posts that I indulge in.

And my answer to why so much hot air, is that it oils the word-gears, and also keeps me from worse mischiefs while waiting for a Muse-call.