Quote:
Originally Posted by R. S. Gwynn
I have it on good authority that James Dickey started his poetry classes by having his students write ballads. One thing about verse-writing, it can be taught, and it can be learned. Reading poetry can be taught as well, and it also can be learned. Williams embarrassed himself into learning how to write poetry.
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Before I joined my first online workshop, I didn't know how to read poetry, and was only slightly okay at writing it (time will tell if I've improved any). The best thing that happened over the years is I learned how to read poetry. When I was on my own I missed 80% of what I was reading, because I was in love with words and language and sound. Meaning took a back seat. That is no longer true, but I can still catch myself reading without paying much attention: a habit I find hard to break.
Before this thread dies I do want to search my book of WCW's early poems to find a traditional piece that isn't a clunker. He did pen a few.
I wonder if many here have read Allen Ginsberg's first blights? He wrote in a very old style, and in tight forms. Some of his formal poetry wasn't bad, but most of it was pretty overbearing.
If anyone happens to stumble across a sequence of hymns I wrote, they will no doubt want to choke me. I am in a slow process of revising them.
Hybrid Mode
