I’m currently reading Paul Muldoon’s latest collection: Joy in Service on Rue Tagore. Although living in America for years, Muldoon is one of the grand old men of Irish poetry and a Pulitzer Prize winner in 2003. Imagine my surprise when I came across ‘For Language and Brief Nudity’ mid-way through the collection. It consists of a single word - PARSE - printed again and again in small capitals, the letters equidistant and formed into a small block. There are no additional spaces between the repetitions of the repeated word except for right in the middle of the block where a ‘P’ has been missed out and two spaces inserted to delineate the word ‘ARSE’.
Thanks for shining a light on this trend. I'm annoyed by the high number of self-styled poets who don't actually understand what poetry is. Poetry isn't a collection of sentences broken into random odd fragments intended to look like "deep thoughts." Poetry is all about rhythm, meter, sound, and soul. True poetic language is beautiful and introspective. True poetry isn't odd sentence fragments devoid of rhythm or meter. And it doesn't resemble word vomit or a written record skip.
Copy of Grimsby Docks just arrived from Blackwells. Loved ( or do I mean impressed by)both photos and poetry. Only visited Grimsby once - briefly, by accident (wrong train), but even then a fading town. I live in Leeds, also possessing decrepit and distressing buildings with people to match. Since I was already a Substack subscriber, decided to subscribe to you.
Thanks for this, Liz - and for subscribing! I'm particularly proud of 'Grimsby Docks' so pleased you liked it. And I lived in Leeds myself for about five years, so know what you mean.
Will I win a prize with a poem rubbish repeat 1 line, garbage repeat 1 line, detritus repeat 1 line, filth repeat 1 line and others I could go on and on with?
Thanks for shining a light on this trend. I'm annoyed by the high number of self-styled poets who don't actually understand what poetry is. Poetry isn't a collection of sentences broken into random odd fragments intended to look like "deep thoughts." Poetry is all about rhythm, meter, sound, and soul. True poetic language is beautiful and introspective. True poetry isn't odd sentence fragments devoid of rhythm or meter. And it doesn't resemble word vomit or a written record skip.
Copy of Grimsby Docks just arrived from Blackwells. Loved ( or do I mean impressed by)both photos and poetry. Only visited Grimsby once - briefly, by accident (wrong train), but even then a fading town. I live in Leeds, also possessing decrepit and distressing buildings with people to match. Since I was already a Substack subscriber, decided to subscribe to you.
Thanks for this, Liz - and for subscribing! I'm particularly proud of 'Grimsby Docks' so pleased you liked it. And I lived in Leeds myself for about five years, so know what you mean.
Will I win a prize with a poem rubbish repeat 1 line, garbage repeat 1 line, detritus repeat 1 line, filth repeat 1 line and others I could go on and on with?
Yup.