[New-Poetry] Excellence?

[Judy Prince]

If you will indulge me, Sam.  I'm often flip and jokey; my style, my joy.
 But p'raps this moment, the discussion about Excellent poetry, and recent
news have met for seriousness.
Tonight a SHAKSPER listmember, Felix de Villiers, reacting to a discussion
thread on "Heroes", regarding 'Hamlet', wrote:  "There is hardly a great
play or novel in which the main characters don't struggle against their
established social world."

He quotes Hamlet and then comments:

"If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart,
Absent thee from felicity awhile,
And in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain,
To tell my story."

"Telling the story is a form of resistance against destiny. Hamlet makes
this plea to Horatio, but it is Shakespeare who tells the story."

A truly fine poem, play or novel does not have to climb such a pinnacle, can
be a beautiful wit-force or just Beauty itself.  But it needs to be
comprehended, or those things cannot be seen.  We all are trying for in our
own work, and looking for in others' work, fresh, startling, jolts of power.
 These jolts need something that few folks mention:  They need to evoke
instant awe-filled RECOGNITION.  We feel the jolt because we 'see' two
strange things suddenly tied together and somehow we 'recognise' something
new.  Magic. These fresh jolting figures inject us with utterly new news
from an odd old mate suddenly given to a nother odd old mate.  We have
undergone Instant Analogy---logic so fleet that it's pre-logic.  A stun of
truth so strong it moves us, many times literally, to action.  We jump.

But the poem needs to be comprehended or the thing which most powers
poetry---the blast of pre-logic analogy---cannot be known.

A case in point is the work of Jen Hadfield.  She is a genius poet.  Yet,
many of her most recent published works display sense-laden disconnects.
 She's brilliant with metaphor, an utter joy to read---if the individual
figures can be comprehended, and if the several cohere.  Her poems in
CHAPMAN a couple years ago [sorry, not to hand, so I can't give the date]
did all the magic I've described, but now she seems, unfortunately I think,
to've danced off the edge of connection and coherence.  And I profoundly
wish she'd come back.

Same thing I wish for your contest entrant.

Be well,

Judy



2009/2/1 <Rsgwynn1 at cs.com>

> I recently received this as an entry in a contest I'm judging. I thought it
> the best of the lot (given the generally low quality). It kind of reminded
> me of Craig Raine, with some genuinely um-Martian turns or phrase.  Any
> thoughts?
>
> *Obviously, I Said
>
> *For example, the wheelbarrow behind
> the avocado pit indicates that the flatulent
> cloud formation gives secret financial
>
> aid to an industrial complex. If a dreamlike
> maelstrom usually gives a pink slip
> to the overpriced bowling ball, then
>
> some pig pen beyond a power drill it
> resembles.  Some mating ritual
> hibernates, or a shabby
>
> tornado recognizes a cocker spaniel.
> Most people believe that a dolphin
> around a microscope gives secret
>
> financial aid to the barely bohemian
> maelstrom, but they need to remember
> how lazily the mastadon meditates.
>
> For example, a fire hydrant
> defined by a tornado indicates that the tabloid
> of the turkey almost avoids contact with a polygon.
>
>
>
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>
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