[New-Poetry] Re: Calling Dr. Giggles

[Bob Grumman]

David Graham wrote:
> In my little wrangle with the Poetry sub-editor on this issue, I just 
> pointed out what seemed and seems to me quite obvious:  we are living 
> in a humor-rich age of poetry.  More humor per page than ever before, 
> you bet.  From open mics to stand-up poetry and slams to the average 
> MFA-sponsored reading series, it's rare to attend a poetry reading 
> these days that is humor-free.  (Well, Jack Gilbert's an exception to 
> this as to many rules.)  And many quite prominent poets (Billy 
> Collins, Albert Goldbarth, Bob Hicok, John Ashbery, the late Kenneth 
> Koch, James Tate, Dean Young, David Kirby, Denise Duhamel, Gerald 
> Stern, Barbara Hamby, et al., not to mention a number of NewPo 
> members) seem to specialize in humor.  Even a poet like Lucille 
> Clifton, who can be as grim as they come, regularly leavens her books 
> & readings with poems like "Homage to My Hips."  
>
> Doesn't all this seem obvious to everyone?  Apparently not. . . .
>
>
> ========================================
> David Graham
>
One thing that makes this question tricky to answer is that there are so 
many poets writing that it's easy to find handfuls doing humor or 
anything else.  I tend to think there are very few humorous poets by 
percentage than there were in the days of the Saturday Evening Post.  
Who is our Richard Armour or Ogden Nash?  I subscribe to LIGHT, which I 
believe is the only American periodical devoted to light verse, and it 
seems barely making it.  Sure, most poets have done a few comic poems, 
but my impression if that poetry in general does other things.  Like 
amusement at the human condition.  Or satire that's too serious to laugh 
at.  A lot of what I call infraverbal poetry will make those who like 
that kind of thing chuckle at the vagaries of language, but most of them 
also expand to something deeper--like Joyce's "cropse.' 

Of course, I'm only thinking of serious poetry.  A lot of slam poems are 
really jokes, but I don't consider them serious poems.  Which makes me 
think about canonical poets.  Which of them did comic turns?  Byron.  
Chaucer told stories that had funny moments.  Some of Shakespeare's 
sonnets are jokes. 

Interesting subject that I confess to be muddled about.

--Bob
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