The problem with poetry

[wasellajam]

The problem with art in general is that it’s all been done before
I find myself unable to appreciate any modern poetry, even the very well written examples thereof.

Geoffrey Hill was a far better craftsman than Shakespeare, and moreover knew things an almost medieval bard (yes, yes, Renaissance and voyages of discovery but also beheadings galore and no baths) with his utterly destitute and practically illiterate world view couldn’t have imagined, but we can see Geoff Hill. He’s on a hill, you know where he’s going. You know the setup. You can expect the revelation at the end of the poem.

It’s so formulaic it’s rubbish.

And this is craft, mind you - not anyone can write like Hilll or Ted Kooser. But you, the reader, are tired of being manipulated.

And so the only poetry worth reading is primitive poetry. Even Chaucer, because he was a hack. But from before the internet.

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Maybe one way to salvage poetry is to write about other planets

I think we're living in a time that hasn't been experienced exactly like this in human history, so I think there are new things to make art about. I'd write about it myself but I find it too scary to dwell on. So while mine, at the moment, can go in the Cats and Trees trash bin I'm confident that you, or someone else, can write something unique. There have always been the same perceivable colors, yet artists have somehow been able to blend them in what seems to be infinite combinations. Regardless, if you write a poem that reaches your reader in some memorable way, even once, that's a communication I think is worthwhile. We never know the ripple effects of our actions and art is, at least, an action.