[New-Poetry] Nat'l Poetry Slag Week

[Anny Ballardini]

I elect Bob Grumman's following mail as the worst insensitive remark on poetry, I'd like to see who can beat me:

"Phooey, I was just going to offer to replace his missing posts with mine 

on why visual poetry is the best kind of poetry.

--Bob G." 

Note:
Italics and line break are mine.

  From: JforJames at aol.com 
  Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2007 2:11 AM



  Okay, in the interest of equal time, and since Nat'l Poetry Month is winding
  down this weekend (no clapping, please). It's time for the anti-poetry forces to take their best shot, to give full vent to the anomosity poesy so readily engenders. Humorous take downs and full body slams welcome.

  Starting tomorrow and for 7 Days & 7 Nights you are invited to post all manner of bad things said about poetry and poets.

  To get us started, I offer an Irishman turning his back on the best export (aside Guinness) from his homeland...

  http://walleahpress.com.au/FR35Prater.html

  Flann O’Brien in the mid-1940s:

  Having considered the matter in – of course – all of its aspects, I have decided that there is no use for poetry. Poetry gives no adequate return in money, is expensive to print by reason of the waste of space occasioned by its form, and nearly always promulgates illusory concepts of life. But a better case for the banning of all poetry is the simple fact that most of it is bad. Nobody is going to manufacture a thousand tons of jam in the expectation that five may be eatable. Furthermore, poetry has the effect on the negligible handful who read it of stimulating them to write poetry themselves. One poem, if widely disseminated, will breed perhaps a thousand inferior copies. The same objection cannot be made in the case of painting or sculpture, because these occupations afford employment for artisans who provide the materials. Moreover, poets are usually unpleasant people who are poor and who insist forever on discussing that incredibly boring subject, ‘books’.








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