Thursday, April 09, 2020

This is What I've Had to Put Up With This Week

From Oddball's Feedback: A poet-friend wrote: “It was good to receive…the holiday Poets & Writers “Inspiration Issue,” which includes inspiring interviews with seven established poets, NONE OF WHOM LOOK ANYTHING LIKE ME (instead, I sadly look like the Powers That Be I loathe in Washington Swamp, making me feel like an Ugly Duckling….” One of my hobby horses these days is opposing the wide-spread canard that poets of color, women, and LGBT poets are still being “marginalized.” I don’t deny discrimination against such poets in the recent past; I do believe that discrimination is if not dead, then dying. This sounds perilously close to the lie told by the right wing, that prejudice against minorities is a thing of the past, but I’m talking about so-called LITERARY discrimination, not social justice. Observations like my poet-friend’s are based on evidence. Count the publications, grants, prizes, invitations to read at festivals, teaching positions, acceptance to MFA programs, and you’ll conclude the poetry “playing field” has been leveled. Please note I’m NOT complaining about “reverse-discrimination”; I’m not even being critical of this trend. I support it, feeling it’s about time po-world has become inclusive. I enjoy much of the poetry composed by formerly marginalized voices. What I’d like is for our Literary Justice Warriors (Amy King and the VIDA group among them) to admit the battle has been won. Perhaps now we can stress the quality of the poetry instead of the identity of the poet.

First comment at bottom: This is a pretty lame poem, graceless and talky. When there's no reason for or effect from a poem's form, it's a sign of the piece's failure. This piece fails. Editor, where do you find these things? There are so many really fine poems available online or published by excellent poets. Maybe raise your standards and start searching for better work? Second comment on top: AND I've been wanting to ask this site's editor a question. Do you have any background at all in literature or poetry? A degree? Taken classes? Studied poetry widely and deeply on your own or formally? I see no evidence of any knowledge of the art in the poems you choose to publish.

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