Good: A good day today, with good food at the Runcible Spoon, somewhat cooler weather after three triple-digit days in a row, sufficient caffeine, cats, and lots of poetry.
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Blurb: If anyone out there -- anyone of the published-book persuasion, I guess -- would be interested in blurbing my chapbook, drop me an email & I can send you the manuscript to read. I have a couple blurbs lined up, I think, but another wouldn't hurt.
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Peeve, pet variety: People using "poetry" as a synonym for "beauty." E.g., "When James Blake hits a killer forehand it's pure poetry." Yes, when a poem is good you have the feeling that not one word should be changed, everything is exactly where it needs to be, et cetera. But good poetry can also be disturbing, jarring, ugly even. Some poetry is beautiful but if you always come to poetry with the expectation of beauty, you're eventually bound to be thwarted. It's like "nature" -- nature is orchids and butterflies and pristine beaches, but it's also droughts and earthquakes and cat-5 hurricanes, and critters that kill & eat one another in sometimes unpleasant ways.
Don't even get me started on people expecting "nature poetry" to be all pretty and domesticated. Nature and poetry can both be terrifying. Ought to be, sometimes, really.
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Ephemeral: As usual, this draft (hot off the press, scribbled while sitting in the public library this morning) will disappear in a day or so.
[...and, gone!]
2 comments:
Peeve, pet variety: People using "poetry" as a synonym for "beauty." E.g., "When James Blake hits a killer forehand it's pure poetry."
Oh god, yes. That bugs me too. Also, when "poetry" is used in a way that means "sappy love crap." Like I was taking some dumb girly quiz online the other day, and they sandwiched the question, "Do you like poetry?" among a bunch of questions like "Do you like red roses?" "Do you like long walks on the beach?" Like poetry is just an accessory for a cheesy date. Do people really think this way about poetry? Ugh!
--Meg aka quiet_flame
Meg-O god yes, that too! Like all poetry is romantic and stuff. Um... NO.
And let's just say right now that if I ever tell someone I've written a poem about them, it's more likely to be a threat than a seduction. ;)
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