The Boston Review's 20 most read poems of 2013
 

So!

Are you/we writing poetry that will be read and re-read by the vanguard and aficionados during 2014 and forward?

Here is a little litmus test. The Boston Review's most read poems of 2013.

http://bostonreview.net/blog/boston-...medium=e mail

Do you know these poets (and the other 12), or have you been sitting all last year with your head in the comfy cloud of your choice?

Catherine Blauvelt, Roberto Bolaño, Anne Carson, Andrew Durbin, (...) Alice Notley, Cherry Pickman, Jordan Windholtz, Justin Wymer

And because conceptualism has been mightily discussed in the Eratospherian hollowed halls, here is an essay on the subject.

http://www.bostonreview.net/poetry/a...-conceptualism

Silly post on my part. .

I'm a Boston guy of sorts - live within an hour by car or train - and would you believe it - I don't know any of the individuals listed, didn't like any poem (about ten) I looked at, and am fairly certain that I will never, ever, be published by The Boston Review.

Plum Island!
Good to see your words, believe it or not.

Sigh...that's my only response...sigh...

Well, I have nearly 500 pages of Bolaño, his La universidad desconocida, albeit in Swedish translation.

I have two books by the Canadian Anne Carson: one, The Beauty of the Husband (also in Swedish translation) and in English a collection of lyrical prose titled Eros; The Bittersweet.

I am familiar with some of the other names while yet others only have recognition value for me and some I am reading for the first time.

Although we cannot, any of us, stay ajour with all the poets and schools, and though it is true (in my world) that flarf might sometimes be a funny gimmick even if my imagination won't stretch far enough to call it a school, my point is nonetheless that it doesn't hurt to remove one's head from one's cloud of choice (such as our beloved DIY forum) and look at what is going on atop other clouds.

It might give a jump-start to find new ways to be formal. Or it might not. It might be like wearing lot of metal on my lips. I see a lot of people are doing it but I'm not encouraged to join them.

That said, both Bolaño and Carson are grounded in the traditions and both can write both poetry and prose.

Nope. I've never heard of any of them. I much prefer the poems of Michael Cantor.

It's not that I object to trying very different stuff--I'm playing with some prose poetry translation now--but I just don't think this Boston Review material is even defensible for the most part.

I've seen Anne Carson's work elsewhere and have a vague recognition that most of it is not as laughable as her entry here.

Oh, no, not Anne Carson. Again. :eek:

It pays to be published earlier in the year, but some of the disadvantaged did make the cut.

It's just silly to put poems into such a contest.