[Curtis Gale Weeks]

Originally Posted by Quincy Lehr

The importance of Robbins's takedown of "postmodern" poetry isn't so much that he skewers mediocre poetry but that he points out that these categories and the polemics associated with them have become less about the advancement of poetry (however construed) and more about product placement. The same, really, could be said about every school of American poetry. I'm all in favor of movements and polemics and all the rest--I just want them to have some vitality.

My reason for disliking "postmodern" poetry is less related to some of its tools and approaches, per se, than about the fact that these can so easily hide the mediocrity and badness of a poem.

And even then, my dislike has most to do w/ the way that such poetry can be defended in a knee-jerk, all-inclusive manner—which seems to be less about the poetry itself than about so many thousands of poets and would-be-poets defending their right to have their poems judged with a default thumbs-up.

I suppose my response is Nietzschean, in the sense that "the herd" will defend anything whatsoever as long their defense insures their own selfish, grasping efforts will be appreciated—indeed, their defense is less about the poems of others being defended (they couldn't care less about those) and more about their own present and future efforts.

Of course, the same can be said about any school of poetry. But "postmodern" poetry has the added advantage (so-called) of being able to hide or mask mediocrity and badness. In fact, in some ways the very concepts of mediocrity and badness seem exiled from that school.

[Don Jones]

I think it’s best to think of individual poets rather than schools. Schools are inevitably political above and beyond the usual politics of everyday life. More accurately, as Christian Wiman pointed out, I paraphrase, schools are the gathering of mediocre artists around an exceptional artist.

I prefer to focus on individuals, even of wildly divergent “schools” because, again, a movement is about power more than the art and that is why so much art cranked out by a movement’s denizens is largely mediocre. It’s a simple bell curve.

I agree with Ed about Robbins take on Dylan Thomas and his reference to the gorgeous Manley Hopkins’ poem could make me forgive almost anything.

[Maryann Corbett]

Walter, what's your take on the November issue? I haven't read it through yet, but I'm wondering whether the features you disliked are still there, in your eyes and ears.

[Mary Meriam]

I've never loved an issue of POETRY as much as the November issue.

(although I am not Walter)

[Orwn Acra]

I haven't read the whole thing yet, Maryann. I like Todd Boss' "Rocket" very much and a few others interest me mildly. I do think there is a noticeable difference between Wiman and the new editor. What the latter publishes tends to be prodding and prosey so far.

Don't get me started on the Ruth Lily people. I have nothing nice to say.

Obviously, I am not Mary Meriam!

[Chris Childers]

As a Lilly rejectee, I would be very interested in your rant. I assume I have this issue, though haven't read it yet, and don't know what I did with it. Must find it & at least glance through. I am hoping to be impressed by my betters, thus remaining unsullied by ressentiment.

Of course, I am not a saint.

[Susan McLean]

Chris, all of Poetry is available for reading online. You don't have to dig up your own copy. Here is a link to the latest issue:

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/toc/2424

I am very sorry to hear that these winners beat you out for the prize. I think you are a much better poet.

Susan

[Jim Burrows]

That does it. Thank you Susan! You just caused me to wonder for the 17th time why I pay for Poetry when it's available online. To flip through and forget it, aparrently. And I liked the quality, size and formatting of the physical magazine itself. Now that I have a 7" Kindle HD fire and can read it comfortably in bed, there's really no excuse. Wouldn't that money be better spent elsewhere? They certainly don't need it. It's like sending a check to Mark Zuckerberg every month just because.

[Alex Pepple]

Originally Posted by Mary Meriam

I've never loved an issue of POETRY as much as the November issue.

Hey Mary, you seem to be our resident 'expert' on the curious new trend at Poetry. Or, maybe, not that curious in light of the apparent inexorability, these days, of postmodernism under the rampant kindling of its daunting number of supportive MFA programs ... but, curious coming from Poetry that had, until the advent of the new editor, claimed inclusiveness, with no bias toward any 'school', and at least, did until now make some attempt to live up to that claim. So, now, I'm doubly curious: what?--why?--did you like so much?

...Alex

[Mary Meriam]

Hi Alex, Cally asked me the same thing on FB, and I gave her these snippets. I wouldn't call these poems "postmodern," if by that you mean avant-garde Language poems in the style of John Ashbery. I consider Ashbery the "interior decorator" - the outside world doesn't exist in his poems. The poems in the Nov issue, however, have all kinds of new visions of the world - they definitely interact with a real world full of pain and trouble and beauty. I love poems that feel everything and look everywhere, like these, and still have a sharp Language-y edge.

in the earth a corpse snapped // God’s ropes
(Joudah)

One hour— One hour—
One hour.
(NEZHUKUMATATHIL)

A green and yellow planet,
A blue band, rung with stars.
(Higgins)

God drew back in a giant gust and blew life into the boy
and like a stranded fish, he shuddered, oceanless.
(Ahmed)

I have come this day to the bank of the Elbe
To write a few postcards
In a tearoom.
(May)

Then they sent us into another, and the iron door slammed,
bolted shut. Screaming, I pounded on it again and again. We truly
were lost, as last I understood....
(BORBÉLY)

and so one hesitates
to clamber up there
just to bomb a cow
with dung or bother
swallows from their
rafter cakes.
(Boss)