Michael,
What do you think of
this poem?
I wrote in another thread:
Quote:
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I didn't know what The Emperor of Ice Cream was all about until I read the explanations online. I must have read that poem a thousand times, and it never sifted down through my top-feathers!
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Here's the B I G difference between a poet like Stevens and someone like John Ashbery. Stevens is notoriously difficult, but he doesn't write nonsense. He writes intensely philosophical poems. His work is an examination of what it is to exist, to perceive, to experience. He harps on the same themes over and over, and those themes are very active in the world today. He is wily and tricksy, but his intention is
not to confuse, but to examine and contemplate.
[Funny you should mention Hollywood. Stevens would have loved The Matrix. He would have loved The Truman Show]
The typical Ashbery poem is one that
appears beautiful,
appears full of very important things, said in a very important manner; but ultimately he writes nonsense poems. I think he pretty much admitted to that, if I'm not mistaken? I could very well be wrong. And please don't misunderstand me: He
has written some very good poems that are
not nonsense; but what he does best — in my opinion — is compose beautiful fakes of the likes of Eliot and Stevens. And he has a flock of wannabes that are not nearly as good at it as he is.
I think it's obvious to everyone who's paying attention that there is a concerted effort by many bright minds in the world to
cause confusion rather than work toward understanding.
Genesis 11:9 has never been more relevant.
Or 1 Corinthians 14:9.