[A Simple Poet]

raggedyanne wrote

Why does no one comment on the poetry thread? We have a handful of literary geniuses here (not including myself) just begging for someone to tell them to stop the poetry and slowly make back away from the keyboard. Or you can say you love their work and they will be your bestest friends.

Probably because people are afraid to critique poetry. Despite the potential litterateurs who may or may not lurk here at GNet, poetry is an art that is lost in the 21st century particularly with the proliferation of free verse. "The dog sitting in the grisly poop" could be a poem and it would be tripe, only people don't have the bollocks to tell others that and the poet probably doesn't have the guts to take the criticism.

This, of course, is not true of everyone. But with regard to this thread, most poems will be dark, about "gothic" topics and usually comes across as cliche unless a literary device or syntax wrinkle is thrown in. Ezra Pound said to make it new, but is that easily done in this genre? I'm not sure. Gothic poetry in my mind should contain darker elements and allegories, yes, but I think there should be certain things such as heavy irony, condemnation of societal mores (or the transgressions beyond such norms) and soul searching all above and beyond cliched imagery.

Your point is valid, raggedyanne, and I agree with you. If more people had the stones (and I mean world wide in the arena of poetry, not necessarily in THIS thread) to intelligently critique poems, there might be more of a place for them in the world.