He said a good poem improved with reading and that readers liked the surge of recognition they experienced when they came upon a good familiar poem. I think he was right.
Janet
Janet, I agree entirely.
The idea that once a new poem (or any other art work) has been exposed to any degree of public view it is "old", or is in some way compromised by its exposure, is a very childish one, in my view.
How often do we re-read the same old poems, over and over? And if they are really good, we find that we can never wear them out.
But today, in many places (like Poetry) for a poem to be once seen in public is to be declared dead. For me, is the sign of a childish, immature culture, obsessed only with the "new, new, new."
The great Les Murray says, 'a different hemisphere doesn't count'.
John, with all respect to the great man, this statement belongs to a lost world - ancient history. With web-mag publishing, there is only one hemisphere. And it's really the only place to publish poems today.
|