Saturday, September 28, 2013

Prompt #165 – The "New" Poetry



I’ve heard it called “Some Kind of Language Poetry,” “Neo-Poetry,” “Out Poetry,” “That Tripe Younger Poets Are Writing,” and (my favorite) “Sudsy Rubbish.” I’ve heard it criticized as “recycled Ashbery,” “self-referential,” “deliberately unclear,” “inward and evasive.” I’m not sure what to call it (or if the poets who write it have given it a name), but it’s definitely putting the screws to the contemporary poetry we’ve come to expect as standard fare.  I admit that, initially, I found it daunting and off-putting; but I’ve come to see it as a style that’s compelling and strangely convincing.

The “new” poetry’s closest association to a particular “school” appears to be to the New York School, which began during the 1960s with poets John Ashbery, Barbara Guest, Kenneth Koch, and Frank O'Hara. Heavily influenced by surrealism and modernism, New York School poetry is serious but also ironical, and incorporates an urban awareness into the body of work. I also see a closeness to Language Poetry, which is formed on the premise that language dictates meaning and stresses the reader's role in determining what a poem is about. There is, of course, always some margin-blurring, and one school leads into (and borrows from) another. This one, so far at least, eludes definition; hence, my generic term “new.”

The “new” poems are often quite cleverly acrobatic (and I write that as a former gymnast and gymnastics choreographer). Their cartwheels and back-flips are charged with inventive intelligence that can be playfully deliberate and teasingly ambiguous. They suggest a freestyle performance of handsprings and leaps propelled by wordy miscellany and oblique content, all choreographed into line breaks and stanzaic arrangements that are characteristically tight. Clearly, the voice is unique and, whether current and streetwise or deep in antiquity, the “new” poets know how to nail a dismount.

I might accuse the “new” poets of using too many adjectives; but, most of the time, the adjectives, though abundant, are startling, memorable, and used in unique combinations, curious admixtures of words and allusions (and even when they defy conventional understanding, they still sound very cool).

I’m drawn to the “new” poems’ longer lines, occasional absences of terminal punctuation, syntactical negotiations, and disregard for levelheaded “sense.” I’m persuaded by the poems’ tendency toward the romantic and surreal (dreaminess rather than poetic muscularity), a sense of longing (perhaps even neediness), and a sharp edge (honed by linguistic acuity). The poems offer drama, tonal turns, and the dazzle of written language. I see in them, as well, a sense of Hart Crane’s optimism and something of the same social and artistic longing for redemption. There is also a sense of the futility of it all. This “new” poetry is nothing if not powered by passion for words and buttressed by an energy that’s dynamic and fresh. I’m reminded here of a line from Adam Fitzgerald's “The Dialogue” (The Late Parade, W. W. Norton/Liveright, 2013): “It’s extraordinary. It is extraordinary.

The “new” poets ramp up language’s natural music with alliteration, assonance, consonance, anaphora, and scattered rhymes. Edgy (sometimes intellectual without being academic), the “new” poems are typically lyrical in their movement away from the linear progression of narrative poetry. Reading them is like walking through a city in which all the windows are open, and conversations converge.

There is about this style a sense of entitlement, but that’s not intended as uncomplimentary or pejorative. Every era has its share of entitled poets, that is, poets who break and change the rules and do something important. Remember (among other schools and movements) the Beats (Kerouac, Ginsberg, Corso), the Surrealists (Breton, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Éluard), and the Imagists (Pound, Williams, HD)? Lately, when I read poems by Adam Fitzgerald and Timothy Donnelly (among others), I can’t help thinking about previous game changers such as Gerard Manley Hopkins, T. S. Eliot, and e. e. cummings.

I don’t always understand the “new” poetry, but I’m intrigued by it and find it substantially more interesting than some of the rambling narratives, dreary lyricals, and technically perfect but ordinary sonnets and villanelles that we often find in journals and online. It would appear that poetry needs, from time to time, a reorientation, a readjustment—the shock of some discovery—and this “school” of poets is providing just that. 

This week, read the example poems very carefully, and then try to write a poem in a similar style.

1. Break a few rules.
2. Write something different, step out of your poetry routine (rut or comfort zone).
3. Play with language, work on lushness and texture in your phrasing.
4. Make some magical music (internal and off rhymes, alliteration, assonance, dissonance, anaphora).
5. Don’t, whatever you do, simply tell a story, but “tell” something.
6. Start with a theme or mood in mind and let that “concept” power the poem.
7. Include startling images and unique combinations of words and phrases.
8. Do something different with punctuation.
8. Make up a word or a quirky expression.
10. Don’t be afraid to experiment.
11. Remember that every poem should make a reader gasp at least once (in appreciative amazement).
12. Surprise yourself.



17 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! I'm not so sure about the style of poetry, but your article is BRILLIANT! Thanks, Adele

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    1. Thanks, Jamie! Your kind words are much appreciated!

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  2. I have to say that, in all honesty, I don't care for this style of poetry at all. Granted, it's different and perhaps more exciting than the standard poetry fare.

    Your post is fantastic, though, and I'm grateful for the insights you shared.

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    1. I would guess that a lot of people share your take on the style, but it really is compelling and, as you put it, different. Thanks for the kind words—I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

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  3. Máire Ó Cathail (Ireland)September 29, 2013 at 11:20 AM

    Stunning stuff! Your article is refreshingly articulate and intelligent without being academic! I'm very impressed. Thank you so much for this, Adele!

    Máire Ó Cathail (Ireland)

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    1. Thanks so much for your kind words and for posting a comment, Maire!

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  4. I was happy to read your post and to learn something new. This style isn't what I prefer to read, but it's certainly interesting!

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  5. I was very "put off" by the "new" style of poems, many of which seemed to simply string combinations of words together with no apparent meaning. Your article, which is very insightful, has encouraged me to take another look and to be more open to a style that appears to be making an impact on "poetry history." In fact, I just ordered the Fitzgerald book that was reviewed in the New York Times. Many thanks.

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    1. Thanks so much for your comment, John. I'm very happy to hear that you found the article insightful. Enjoy the Fitzgerald book!

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  6. I need a cloaking device
    Nah
    Look! Go ahead!
    I have nothing to hide
    Look!
    Just don't become pesty
    like a mosquito
    vampire
    blood sucker
    meat eater
    slaughterer
    Look!
    Yeah!
    And still I live
    I'm here
    visible
    transparent
    yet
    energetically protected
    not cloaked
    I don't hide
    behind
    bushes
    lies
    actions
    I can fly
    and do
    I still can't levitate though
    O dear!
    O, Salem!
    The moaning and weeping women
    of Salem
    of France
    Of now
    and tomorrow
    Unveil
    the truthful conditions of suffering humanity
    Rejoice
    in the baleful
    sufferings of life
    Let them pass through cloaking devices
    at
    the speed of light

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    1. Great fun, Risa! And chock full of meaning! Thanks for sharing with us.

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    2. Thanks, Jamie! I need one of those smiley faces to attach here!

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    3. Well done, Risa! Hope you enjoyed the "experiment." Here's a smiley: :-) (The best I can get here on Blogger.)

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  7. I'm sorry I can't agree with your thoughts on the "new" poetry. I find it too obscure, too deliberately "odd," and mostly unreadable. I have a hard time finding its heart and soul (for lack of a better phrase). I'll concede that it's different and interesting, but I suspect that the poets involved are good at networking their way into the good graces of editors and publishers.

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    1. Understood Jim, and thanks for your comment. The wonderful thing about poetry is that there's richness for everyone, and no one is bound to any particular style or form.

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  8. I have to say that I just don't care for this type of poetry; however, I DO like your 'article' VERY much! It's beautifully written -- coherent and elegant. I wish I could write like that!

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