[New-Poetry] NatPoMo

[Bob Grumman]

> Bob Grumman wrote:
>>
>>     I would also want to resist caricaturing mainstream poetry as
>>     merely "easy-listening," as Bernstein and others persistently 
>> do. --David Graham
>>      But it is unarguably easy listening compared to language poetry
>>     and visual poetry, the latter because it is apparently hard for
>>     most people to appreciate anything, however simple, that uses two
>>     or more expressive modalities; it is also hard, apparently, for
>>     most people, to appreciate minimalism--which is intellectually
>>     easy but aesthetically difficult.
>>      --Bob G.

>I'm not convinced by the argument that if fewer people >respond to 
>something, it must ipso facto be more >challenging.  --the Mole

Can't see that I said or suggested that, Mole.  I just pointed out that the 
poetry Bernstein attacks is easy listening compared to the kind he likes. 
But I would say that less people are going to like challenging poetry than 
easy listening poetry, just as less people are going to like calculus than 
arithmetic or Ingmar Bergman than As The World Turns.

--Bob