[New-Poetry] Re: Pirates

[Bob Grumman]

Skip Fox wrote:
> "Newness is value" is not my credo at all, at least the way they (mostly
> "materialists") seem to mean it as the "ultimate" or "central" value.  (And
> I'm not a materialist.)
>
> I think it is probably part of the value (imagine writing a "Essay on
> Civilization" in perfect 18th century rhymed couplets . . . no matter how
> good, it's ultimately an exercise).
>
> One thinks with (and against, through, etc.) the mind of one's time and
> language, it seems, and any work which is just affirming settled verities or
> observations seems deficient.
>
> But "newness" is not an ultimate value to me. Though its intimate to the
> process.
>   
I really have nothing new to add.  Just wanted to repeat my boilerplate 
that a poem has to be new in some meaningful way to be worth an 
engagent's time.  "What have I done in this poem that's never been in a 
poem before?" is a question too few poets ask when they've completed a 
poem.  Or, more reasonably, "what am I doing in my poetry?"--since it's 
silly to expect someone to do something new in every poem--just in one's 
work as a whole, and not forever.

--Bob G.