The thing that's always attracted to me to poetry (and not longer forms) is that you can distill language into themes that are too heavy to express in more explicit language. In a certain light poetry is a form of philosophy.
So if there's too much poetry out there now it's likely because we're regressing to the mean thematically. Shakespeare already nailed most of it hundreds of years ago, how much is there really left to say with poetry? The same is true in almost every other artform. We've just been making art for too long now, and it's never been easier to make more of it.
But to the new poets, producing new work, maybe it's a process of self-discovery. The themes are old, but to them they aren't.
|