Poetry is hard!

The best thing to read on LJ today is an ongoing discussion between springheel_jack (if you're not reading his LJ, you're missing out), spimby, fengi, and others about U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and his latest hilarious interview. (Relevant links: this one, this one, this one, and this one.)

I have very little to add to the discussion. I haven't heard of the guy before, which is at least in part because he doesn't write the sort of poetry that I tend to read. Not that I read that much poetry, but when I do, it's the kind of poetry he criticizes. Out of curiosity, I read some of Kooser's poetry and I was not impressed. The only thing worse than bad poetry is boring poetry. I may not entirely get T.S. Eliot (and really, I've never studied poetry as an academic), but I've lost count of the number of times I've read The Wasteland, in part because of its complexity. It's not that there's anything wrong with light reading, of course. There's something wrong with anti-intellectualism and with encouraging readers not to read work that includes words that they might have to look up in the dictionary. This kind of populism reinforces cultural elitism and the idea that "the masses" can't understand anything that uses polysyllabic vocabulary.

Anyway, I was all ready to be smug about Canada's Poet Laureate, but then I found out that it wasn't George Bowering anymore. I think ours might actually be worse than Kooser.

(To go off on a tangent for a moment, the one time I ever agreed with Objectivists is when they called the TTC's poetry campaign "Poetry in the Way." We have differing reasons, of course == they thought ads should go there, I think that poems should not be complete crap -- but that's another story.)

Really, public cultural initiatives shouldn't encourage mediocrity. I'm inclined to agree with springheel_jack that it's probably intentional in Kooser's case. Sigh.

By the way, what's with this "modern poetry is so hard to understand" meme? Was John Donne very simple and straightforward and I'm just missing something?

Poetry is hard!

The best thing to read on LJ today is an ongoing discussion between springheel_jack (if you're not reading his LJ, you're missing out), spimby, fengi, and others about U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and his latest hilarious interview. (Relevant links: this one, this one, this one, and this one.)

I have very little to add to the discussion. I haven't heard of the guy before, which is at least in part because he doesn't write the sort of poetry that I tend to read. Not that I read that much poetry, but when I do, it's the kind of poetry he criticizes. Out of curiosity, I read some of Kooser's poetry and I was not impressed. The only thing worse than bad poetry is boring poetry. I may not entirely get T.S. Eliot (and really, I've never studied poetry as an academic), but I've lost count of the number of times I've read The Wasteland, in part because of its complexity. It's not that there's anything wrong with light reading, of course. There's something wrong with anti-intellectualism and with encouraging readers not to read work that includes words that they might have to look up in the dictionary. This kind of populism reinforces cultural elitism and the idea that "the masses" can't understand anything that uses polysyllabic vocabulary.

Anyway, I was all ready to be smug about Canada's Poet Laureate, but then I found out that it wasn't George Bowering anymore. I think ours might actually be worse than Kooser.

(To go off on a tangent for a moment, the one time I ever agreed with Objectivists is when they called the TTC's poetry campaign "Poetry in the Way." We have differing reasons, of course == they thought ads should go there, I think that poems should not be complete crap -- but that's another story.)

Really, public cultural initiatives shouldn't encourage mediocrity. I'm inclined to agree with springheel_jack that it's probably intentional in Kooser's case. Sigh.

By the way, what's with this "modern poetry is so hard to understand" meme? Was John Donne very simple and straightforward and I'm just missing something?

Pop Quiz!

What did Stephen Harper do this time?

a) Admit that he believed in evolution.
b) Pledge a full military presence in Canadian cities.
c) Eat a kitten during the live televised debate.

( Answer under the cut. )

EDIT: OMG! Rick Mercer did a spoof ad for CPC-ML! Go here, then click on the Communist Party graphic for comedy gold.

Pop Quiz!

What did Stephen Harper do this time?

a) Admit that he believed in evolution.
b) Pledge a full military presence in Canadian cities.
c) Eat a kitten during the live televised debate.

( Answer under the cut. )

EDIT: OMG! Rick Mercer did a spoof ad for CPC-ML! Go here, then click on the Communist Party graphic for comedy gold.