[New-Poetry] mo natterin' bout po no matterin'

[Anthony Lawrence]

Dave Schramm (from The Schramms) and John Gorka are two that come to  
mind as writers whose lyrics
stand out. Schramm, especially, can be breathtaking. The song Hammer  
and Nails, his homage to Townes van Zandt
(from solo album of the same name) is one of the finest things I've  
heard.

On 05/09/2006, at 6:13 AM, jfq at myuw.net wrote:

> On Mon, 4 Sep 2006, Chris Lott,
>> If-- for the sake of discussion-- pop music is the primary vehicle  
>> for
>> poetry today, isn't that pretty sad? I'm a fan of a lot of pop music,
>> but as poetry? Not so much.
>
> I look at that fact as the pretty obvious response to observations  
> that there isn't much poetry in news papers and magazines any more.  
> so what if all there is is poetry on the radio. granted a lot of it  
> is really really bad. but so was most of the mostly lyric verse in  
> the newspapers and magazines of yore. and there are always  
> exceptions. take, for example, the magnetic fields, regina spektor,  
> or beck and you'll see a great deal of lyrical sophistication in  
> pop music that one would be hard pressed to find in, say, billy  
> collins or glyn maxwell, to pick a couple of my favorite whipping  
> posts. And I'd hold that robert smith of the cure, at his best- 
> which granted is pretty rare these last fifteen years- or Tricky at  
> his best whihc is a bit more common, are head and shoulders above  
> dana mr "can poetry matter" himself gioia at his best.
>
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Anthony Lawrence
ajlawrence1 at bigpond.com