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Are Poetry Boards Good for Poetry?


http://clatterymachinery.wordpress.com/2008/04/20/the-pee-in-the-pool-of-on-line-poetry-by-terreson/

The link supplied directs anyone interested to an essay of mine on poetry boards, its potential impact on poetry, and on poetry board management practices. Posting the link is a start, another introduction to the philosophy behind Delectable Mnts. Posting the link serves a second purpose, not so secondary. Being critical of poetry board practices and behavior, the essay sets a certain standard by which, in my opinion, Delectable Mnts should be measured.

Side note. The answer to the essay's question can be yes.

I wish to express my admiration and respect for the owner of the blog, Clattery MacHinery, for having carried the essay. He took a measure of heat in certain quarters of the online poetry circuit.

Tere

Last edited by Terreson, Sep/16/2008, 7:17 pm
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Not to mention the stunning and exemplary, both pro and con, comments stream after your essay. That has been a real education in the sense of sorting through who takes what attitude towards your criticisms. Kudos to Clattery for being brave and thoughtful throughout.

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Sep/20/2008, 12:47 am Link to this post Send Email to Dragon59   Send PM to Dragon59
 
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You are exactly right, Dragonman. The comments stream, as you call it, made for a fundamental sorting of attitudes. In retrospect it brings to mind what Einstein said about the two basic responses to the universe: a place that is either friendly or unfriendly.

Tere
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Terreson,

I've followed the controversy (to some extent) surrounding your stances. You know there are areas I never fully explored, apertures through which I never crawled, so I never really got to the crux of it. But I continue to respect you, continue to love your poetry, unique as it is.

Even if I were to ever disagree with your politics, I think I would still like your poetry. It's kind of like some of this postmodernist stuff, or the physics where light is both a wave and a particle. Contradictions. Yet, your poetry is there, and the most important part (if I'm not wrong). I encountered your essay, if that is THE essay I'm thinking about earlier, and read part of it. Or all of it.

And I'm glad that someone takes some of this sh*t seriously. Zak

ps -- Terreson, do you have any poems to post? I don't want to rush you. I was rushed by a friend in the past, and it was not good. But if you have anything decent, or even something you want to put on the dart board . . .

Last edited by Zakzzz5, Dec/13/2008, 8:30 am
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There have so many rounds of guff on that comments stream that I think it just proves many of the points in Tere's essay: people acting out in the ways predicted.

What I like about it is that it shows who is walking their talk, and who is just an ass. I figure that Tere's decision to start and run this board, here, is a way of walking his talk. I approve. Obviously I'm here, when I've otherwise completely abandoned all other online poetry venues. I'd given up the whole thing as a bad experience, and unnecessary to my own poetry. I got invited here, and so far I like it because it's exactly the level and kind of discourse that I find useful rather than annoying. (No one should take anything I say here personally, please. I am thinking out loud to myself.) I like it because I know many of the folks now here, we have enough mutual history to know each other well, and we can play with that as well as be serious about it. For example, Pat and I go WAY back, and we've played together in online poetry for, how long has it been now? At least ten years.

Anyway, to get back to Tere's essay. Again, I figure it has really been about sorting out those who can walk their talk, or at least do their best to try to do that, from those who are merely power-hungry.

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Dec/13/2008, 10:02 am Link to this post Send Email to Dragon59   Send PM to Dragon59
 
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Goodness. Two very thoughtful comments. Let me respond in tandem.

First, Zakman, thank you for your comments on my poetry. To receive such straight talk is humbling. You've actually touched on one of my intentions when making poetry. What you allude to as the quantum effect. It is pretty much how I approach experience, at least in part. Elsewhere I've said that the act of naming cheats us into thinking we know the thing. The act of poetry gets us behind the name, inside the thing. This is pretty much what I look to do. And it seems to me there is no one right way for doing it. Anyway, thanks, sir.

As for posting my poetry here, it looks as if I need to change my approach. I've deliberately kept from posting in order to make the board for others. In effect I've held back so that everyone can make the board their own through participation. Having said as much maybe I should proceed differently. I do have a recently completed collection, my sixth, I've named "Bottom City Blues." It was written over a six year period, or from '02 to last summer. I am in the middle of finalizing the poetry, honing and smoothing and planing and such, all 54 poems, some of which are not likely to survive the critical, objective stage. I think you and most people here have probably seen the poems. Almost all of them were first worked on Lily's board and elsewhere. But it might help the process were I to put up the (provisionally) finalized poems on our critical forum.

As for the essay and my less than polite behavior on several boards, I don't expect everyone to agree with the issues raised. I think it is safe to safe that Dave here disagrees, and maybe strongly so. But it hasn't kept us from going after what brought us both to the boards in the first place and in the same space.

And here is something else. My motivation for the essay and for the objections raised to (some) board practices has two parts to it. Over in fields notes Dragonman put up a fine essay on bullies and on bullyism. The essay put much into focus for me, both that the poetry boards have their quota of bullies whose behavior I find a poetry killer and that I still can't keep quiet in the face of this kind of dominating behavior.

The second part of my motivation is simpler. It is that poetry is my highest value, and it has been since age 16. I view it as a Way, maybe in the sense of Tao. Through it I have found everything, including a life affirming religious orientation. And it doesn't have to do with my poetry only, but with all poetry, with poetry as a-thing-in-itself. Various board rules, bad criticism given in bad faith, and the dominating types, I view all as a clear threat to poetry. If you ask why I don't just walk away from it all, the answer is because I believe in poetry boards, I believe in the idea of poetry boards. It may be the best thing to come to poetry since sliced bread. It is, or can be, truly democratizing, taking poetry out of the hands of the few, the professionals, the editors, and the teachers. How would I have found you but for poetry boards? Or Pat, Katlin, Dragonman, Caroline, Chrisfriend, and several dozen other poets whose verse, on occassion, has straightened my back? There was one poet with whom I had contact for four years, or until she left the poetry rooms and boards in disgust over the flame wars. Her grammar was pretty bad. But she was a gifted poet who could work in that pre-conscious way. And her poetry rarely failed to take me up. Her screen name was batgirl and she was the best improv poet I've ever read. I wouldn't have met her but for the boards. None of us would have met but for the boards. And there is something else. Some of the most authetic and original poetry I find these days I find on the boards, not in bookstores, poetry magazines, or university readings. Poetry that even on occassion pushes against limits. Thus my commitment to an idea that sometimes doesn't seem like such a good one.

And, Dragonman, what you say about the sorting process rings true. It is what it has been. I also think a certain boil got lanced. That you came so close to leaving the system in digust speaks volumes. You've always given of yourself to conversations and exchanges. You've always pushed us readers with your poetic conceptions. I am someone who thinks that individuals matter, that some people are irreplacable. John Fowles was right in his notion about the Aristos, the right man for the circumstance. Without certain individuals circumstance is the poorer. You are one such individual.

My aplogies for such a lengthy post.

Tere
Dec/13/2008, 2:54 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
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Has there ever been as long a comments thread?

I'm bumping this up because another cycle of vituperation has been going on. What each cycle reveals, other than the venality of some of the players (and their need to argue for the sake of arguing, or to Be In The Right all the time), is perhaps new insight into what one is going to tolerate, and what one isn't. I find myself getting nastier in my own comments, partially out of exhaustion, but also because I increasingly don't give a rat's ass what any of those self-appointed nabobs think of me, you, or our opinions.

It really is a petri dish of social dysfunction, ennit, proving once again by demonstration some of your analysis made in the original essay. If only some of these folks were self-aware enough to actually see what they were doing.

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Dragonman, this is not the first time you and I have shared a moment of syncronicity. Pretty wild.

I don't know which board discussion you have in mind. But I just posted a link on Clattery's to our board's discussion from last September on the Against Argument Culture thread. As you say there seems to be a certain cyclical turn/return to discussion by argument, what usually, and quickly, falls into the vitriolic exchange. And I thought of our discussion. It occurred to me that, in fact, there are other ways to proceed in board discussions. I gave the link in the spirit of demonstrating as much.

Tere
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Both Dragonman's comment about the length of conversation that has accrued to the Clattery thread carrying my essay and Rus Bowden's recent membership to Delectable Mnts brings something to mind. I think it is important.

Last spring, spring of '08, I needed a good month to write the essay and another month to get it right. Then came time to 'sell' it. I can't remember the number of boards, blogs, and ezines I contacted. Certainly it was over six. Then in one conversation a good friend suggested I contact Rus Bowden. I remember thinking, 'that chick's high on something right now.' Rus Bowden, I thought? The IBPC man? The man who must have a smokey backroom kind of understanding with many of the board owners and admins my essay takes exception to? I am not kidding. I was certain the lady was daft. Apparently, however, she had read an exchange between Rus and board mods concerning the stupid don't-crit-the-critter rule. His position was contra the rule. If I remember correctly, at one point he said on the board, 'I ain't nobody's baby !@#$ boy.' That was a comment I could relate to in my gut.

So I contacted the IBPC man. I had had no dealings with him before. Man, I wish I could share some of its points. It still makes me chuckle. Then he said it would get carried on the Clattery blog. Then he made editorial suggestions that made good sense. Then it got aired.

Some may remember the heat I took for the essay. But I bet no one knows how much heat Clattery's owner had to take for simply carrying the piece. This really turns my stomach, puts me in mind of McCarthy ways of proceeding, and I am still shaking my head that poets were involved. A month or so after the essay's appearance I contacted Rus Bowden. In effect I said: are you sure you want to do this? I remember exactly what he said in reply. And the essay and the ensueing conversation have kept in place.

Some things are important. The free exchange between artists is important. Thanks, Rusman.

Tere
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Hear, hear.

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http://poetryfoundation.org/harriet/2009/01/of_poetry_and_privilege.html

That's an interesting post, because it shows how the issues are nothing new. Even in past centuries, privilege marred the "republic of letters."



And for more on argument culture, here's a review of David Denby's book "Snark," which is making some familiar points:

http://www.cjr.org/page_views/sticks_and_stones_1.php?page=all



More on Denby's book:

a review that itself is a bit snarky, thus sort of proving Denby's point

another interview with Denby


Last edited by Dragon59, Jan/27/2009, 11:32 am


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It has been suggested that I bring over an exchange from Clattery's blog. The first post was made by someone else. The second post is my response.

Post #899 "I forgot to respond to one of your questions. Do I think the internet and Poetry and the New Yorker can co-exist? Yes. However I tend to lean toward the icons of poetrty as a basis of my judgement. I see too much uneducated guess work on the internet. It’s like using Wikapedia as a reliable academic source. It has no credibility. I don’t find much credibility in poetry forums. Again that’s just me. I sort of like tried and true venues of agreed upon quality."

Comment by The Real Jack C — January 30, 2009 @ 8:21 pm

re: #899. I suppose the first question is to ask exactly what constitutes poetry credibility on line and in the poetry forums? Is this a question concerning the poetry itself, poetry criticism, and or poetry comprehensions (which I define as the capacity for recognizing poetry when and where it appears irrespective of such environmentally bound measures as bias to style and form). I suppose it is true that I find more poetry posters than I find credible poets. True as well that I find more poetry critics than I find credible critics of poetry. And again true that I find a smallish capacity for poetry comprehension, especially amongst those online readers of poetry that press, what in my view, is a limited agenda of what makes for good poetry and who can be the loudest in their declarations of what makes for good poetry.

Similarly, however, I find much the same circumstance off line, in print. I find it in the professional magazines, in what gets published in books, and in what gets promoted in universities and colleges. “Poetry”, for example, is a magazine that should have died a natural death when Harriet Monroe kicked the bucket. Then there is a story Pres. Carter told back in the nineties concerning a book of poetry he made. At first, his publisher rejected the submission. So the peanut farmer went to a bookstore, bought a bunch of contemporary poetry books, read them, then sent them to his editor with the question: now how exactly is this poetry better than mine? Jimmy’s book got published. As for the college poetry scene, it has been sterile for as long as I can remember. Certainly since the early seventies. Ideologies have changed since then perhaps. The dust bowl of the environment has not.

There are two thing I do find in the on line poetry circuit I do not find as often in my bookstores’ poetry sections. I find first-round, non-professional poets who can only be described as naturals, who are ‘un-smart’ enough not to be weighed down by agenda and ideology, and who time and time again say the true things in authentic language carefully wordsmithed. I also find gifted poetry readers who have that capacity I have come to value: poetry comprehension.

Maybe there is a third thing I find on line I do not find off line and in print. A certain democratizing of poetry. On line I can find poetry by an eighteen year old girl whose sense of internal, organic form leaves me shaking my head. I can find poetry by a truck driver whose syntax-play strips away at perceptual bias. I can find the unguarded lyricism of a housewife looking to make experience, at least symbolically, authentic. And I can find the dreamer not speaking to an audience or a committee, but to the dream.

I suppose in the end I don’t much care about credibility. It’s just a second-hand emotion. Second-hand to poetry. Since I first came on line I’ve had this crazy notion that the best of on line poetry should somewhere, somehow get anthologized. I frankly think it is better, the best of it, than what filters through, filters past, arbiters working in print.

Tere

Comment by Terreson — January 31, 2009 @ 1:02 am

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If credentials really meant anything, then poetry and academia would truly be meritocracies. They're obviously not. The only thing like a genuine meritocracy I think of in contemporary culture nowadays is, paradoxically, the military.

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Over at Babilu, Rus Bowden posted an essay entitled "Wranglers versus Stranglers," which is worth reading:

http://pochapocha.com/babilu/read.php?3,2915,2915#msg-2915
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Thanks, Katfriend, for bringing over the link. The essay struck me also. Has it ever occurred to you how stranglers tend to be at pains to assure the strangled of their love for them? Interesting, don't you think?

Tere
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I've been reading a book entitled, "The Great Influenza," about the flu epidemic of 1918. The following is from the introductory comments re: the govt's response:

     "Institutions are a strange mix of the mass and the individual. They abstract. They behave according to a set of rules that substitute both for individual judgments and for the emotional responses that occur whenever individuals interact. The act of creating an institution dehumanizes it, creates an arbitrary barrier between individuals.

     Yet institutions are human as well. They reflect the cumulative personalities of those within them, especially their leadership. They tend, unfortunately, to mirror less admirable human traits, developing and protecting self-interest and even ambition. Institutions almost never sacrifice. Since they live by rules, they lack spontaneity. They try to order chaos not in the way an artist or scientist does, through a defining vision that creates structure and disipline, but by closing off and isolating from that which does not fit. They become bureaucratic.

     The best institutions avoid the worst aspects of bureaucracy in two ways. Some are not really institutions at all. They are simply a loose confederation of individuals, each of whom remains largely a free agent whose achievements are independent of the institution but who also shares and benefits from association with others. In these cases the institution simply provides an infrastructure that supports the individual, allowing him or her to flourish so that the whole often exceeds the sum of the parts..."

John M. Barry

Not exactly on point but interesting.
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Close enough to being on point for me, Chrisfriend. I especially respond to this: "The act of creating an institution dehumanizes it, creates an arbitrary barrier between individuals." And, conversely, to this: "The best institutions avoid the worst aspects of bureaucracy in two ways. Some are not really institutions at all. They are simply a loose confederation of individuals, each of whom remains largely a free agent whose achievements are independent of the institution but who also shares and benefits from association with others. In these cases the institution simply provides an infrastructure that supports the individual, allowing him or her to flourish so that the whole often exceeds the sum of the parts..."

The author is also right when he speaks of how institutions tend to treat in abstracts, not in emotion. That is the real killer. That is what makes an institution's raison d'etre itself, its own maintenance and perpetuation, even if the individual must be sacrificed. This to me is what bureaucracy is all about and why even the best intentioned bureaucrat keeps at variance with her or his own individuality.

Sartre and de Beauvoir made an interesting observation sometime, I think, after WW 2. They said a new type of personality had come into the world. They called the type the organizational man, the individual who has subsumed his own individuality for the sake of the organization. They said he was an American invention that has been exported. When I think of all the fights some of us have had with poetry board moderators and defenders of even bad practices I think of this organizational man. And I realize there is no possibility of reasoning with him, of finding the compromise, of reaching to a common ground. In my eyes he is lost because he has relinquished some part of the critical faculty. In his eyes he is defending the institution from criticism. In my eyes he doesn't get that only by means of self-evaluation and self-reflection can an institution, through its members, keep human. In his eyes the full capacitation of what it means to be human has no value. More, he especially doesn't get that no institution or organization should be maintained at all cost.

Chrisfriend, your post is very timely for me. I've been reluctant to share something on our board. But now I've decided to do so.

For a couple of months or so I've been visiting the Poetry Foundation's on line site, sometimes enetering into conversation in its area called Harriet's Blog. Less than a month ago they instituted a new feature. At the bottom of every post there is a like/dislike function that can be clicked. You like the post, say so, and the comment gets a thumbs up. Dislike the post, say so, and it gets a thumbs down. Voting is anonymous. Not four weeks later and the situation has become nasty, unsavory, as I predicted it would. Voting has become partisan. People who disagree with something said, no matter the thoughtfullness and good intention, give the thumbs down. People who simply dislike the poster for whatever reason give the thumbs down no matter the value of the comment. As I say it is all done anonymously. In effect, the blog has institutionalized snarkiness. By now party lines have become drawn, with, as usual, the majority siding with management, and the place has become polarized. I also think I notice that the usally quiet people have voted with their feet and stopped speaking up at all.

Early on I tried to point out the logic of the feature, which is that it amounts to a collective act of shunning. But it did no good. And I know it will not do any good. Management will now have to defend what it has instituted. Why? Because it cannot tolerate criticism. And so now there is a situation amounting to double jeopardy. Snarkiness has been institutionalized. The dehumanization of conversation must now result in the stripping down of emotional honesty through fear.

On our board we have a feature that could be actived. It is the good karma/bad karma feature. Every member could give out one or the other for every post made. The first thing I did last September was to disable it. This way we are all responsible for what we say or don't say.

Thanks, Chrisfriend.

Tere
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I gotta ask, because you, Tere, taught me to stay away from that kind of poison. I went to Harriet's blog once early on when reading hype about it and immediately recongized it for what it was...no matter how noted she is as a poet...it's a closed club unless you take a summer workshop from them and praise her.

I can't believe you, of all people, went there, partioipated, tried to play their game and got hurt again. Why? You taught us, it isn't worth the hurt, pal.

Pat

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Point taken, Pat. But heh. I only needed five weeks or so to get the poisonnous nature of the place. I am getting quicker maybe.

Tere
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Happy Sunday, Tere and Pat,

This talk of 'the organizational man' and group 'shunning' reminds me of these manufactured mobs who have been showing up at town hall meetings of democratic congresspeople to disrupt and shut them down.
Some have, not surprisingly, devolved into violence already and I expect things to get uglier. It's even easier to be ugly in cyberspace, doesn't cost a thing and such behavior is rapidly becoming the norm.

Sorry to unload here. I've been following this trend and I'm beginning to see it everywhere.

Chris
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I get what you're saying, Chrisfriend. Apparently some on line individual wrote on his blog that people should go to these town hall meetings with the express intention to shake things up. The blog message got passed on from coast to coast. So there is your mob manufacturer. It would seem that cyberspace snarkiness has gotten exported to the streets. I for one see no difference between the two. Snarkiness is snarkiness and its express intention is disruption. These town hall meeting mobs could care less about the issues involved.

Tere
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Authorial Intent, Snark, and Missing the Point on Purpose

Perhaps just adding fuel to the fire, but an interesting perspective on it all.

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A case of my bad, Dragonman, but I am just now getting around to reading the blog article. I agree with the author with out reservation. To me the perspective comes naturally and, I guess, shouldn't even need to be raised. That it has to does not speak well of the current circumstances attending on criticism in general, right? The critic who doesn't bother to ask himself, what may be the most basic question (what is the poem after?), is someone I've long since left behind. As for the snarkiness of some critics it is almost as if they want to emulate the likes of Oscar Wilde without, unfortunately, understanding the objectives of his wit, which was to illustrate the fact that the emperor is naked. That is what he was after. With him it was not a case of irony for the sake of irony, something the snarky critic does not get.

Thanks for this.

Tere
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Boy, do I feel dumb. Especially since, having organized the board's fora, of all people, I should know what belongs where.

I started this thread in the very beginning, back in Sep of '08. My intention, then, was to introduce my thoughts on what a board such as ours should both go for and avoid in poetry related matters. It is why I placed it in the board's forum, Salon Chat, the first of the fora. Which intention was fine...then. Some 16 months later and I am only now realizing that, all along, the thread more belongs to Discussion I's forum. (Talk about a thought process slower than the flow of molasses!)

My apologies to all. Especially since Dragonman's immediately preceding post makes it clear the topic is more wide ranging than were my initial, parochial concerns. Besides, perhaps with the move the topic can generate more focused discussion.

Tere
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Re: Are Poetry Boards Good for Poetry?


I am bringing forward this long ago thread for a reason. Please, at least, link to the essay starting the thread I wrote on poetry board practices. It was the disquiet that incited me to create Delectable Mnts. I do not want our board to go the way of other boards.

Tere

Last edited by Terreson, Mar/31/2012, 10:04 pm
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Opie DeLetta Profile
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Re: Are Poetry Boards Good for Poetry?


This is an interesting “article” that you’ve obviously invested a lot of neuron cardio in.

In my philosophical opinion I believe things intrinsically tend to average out via mutual synthesis (with increasing entropy). The most basic example is: pour a cup of boiling hot water into a lukewarm bath tub and the overall temp rises slightly. The intense highly localized heat is attenuated (marginalized) by the superior mass of lesser active atoms. Perhaps and consider, neurons collectively behave in a similar manner – in relation to the “hive” structure of intellectual think tanks, creative centers, and various purpose-centric cyber cafes. The common purpose (as in the average via mutual synthesis) is a mind meld per se.

I wonder if the Borg are already among us?

Beyond “poetry boards” I think the debate can be extended to the internet in general.
IMO one of the cornerstone creative impulses of the universe (as a dynamic system) is the “conspiracy” to self-collaborate and manifest cooperative and/or symbiotic relationships with infinite possibilities. Therefore, in certain terms, we are all “parasitics” feasting on the potentialities that our local branch of universe offers.

Ironically: isolation tends to create dynamic variance whereas mass assimilation truncates or obliterates the same. For example, we have all witnessed the disappearance of small localized business displaced by monolithic franchises and other incorporated agencies of “amalgamation.” So why would “poetry boards” foster dynamic variance when they functionally envelop discrete creative impulses and “nurture” them in a hive relationship?

Historically the assimilation “impulse” has promoted its synthesis with terms like “efficiency,” “economy of scale,” “unity” and “liberty.” Whatever. It’s a way of averaging out via mutual synthesis. It’s a way of not being alone. It’s a process that breads familiarity and sameness. That comforts many.

But whatever we call it, or however it manifests, the greater composition of “convergence” is a universal impulse. And just like Lucas capitalized on in the original Star Wars, it’s a story we all know by heart.

Go forth young poet. May the verb be with you!

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Apr/6/2012, 11:35 pm Link to this post Send Email to Opie DeLetta   Send PM to Opie DeLetta Blog
 
Terreson Profile
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Re: Are Poetry Boards Good for Poetry?


Excellent thoughts, Opie. I believe I follow you at least well enough to get that yours is an overview of a certain process. Not only does it make sense to me but it matches with my experience - the empirical thing.

As pertains to, what?, the poetry board question I asked, I sometimes wonder why a few of us started Delectable Mnts back in fall of '08. Given a certain set of experiences leading up to the board's creation, doing so kind of doesn't make sense. Pretty illogical really. But two thoughts stood in the way, still do, of giving up on a certain possibility. One is that I've always thought of poets as comprising a kind of college, an unendowed college at its best. Second thought is that I wanted a place that disproved the tendancy you rightly point to. A place were difference, not the slide into homogeneity, is cultivated. Probably you know what Uncle Walt said about poetry in old age:

~ Let me not dare, here or anywhere, for my own purposes, or any purposes, to attempt the definition of Poetry, nor answer the question what it is. Like Religion, Love, Nature, while those terms are indispensable, and we all give a sufficiently adequate meaning to them, in my opinion no definition that has ever been made sufficiently encloses the name Poetry; nor can any rule or convention ever so absolutely obtain but some great exception may arise and disregard and overturn it. ~

That is something I can run with.

Tere
Apr/7/2012, 11:32 am Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
ineese Profile
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Re: Are Poetry Boards Good for Poetry?


I'd like to offer my opinion on this question,
if I may because its something that I've been dealing with lately.

I think that because poetry boards are made
up of people, they can only do for poetry what those persons
participating in the boards offer in the process.

I have some fantastically, talented friends who post on poetry
boards who I respect and look forward to working with. Some,
obviously not. It's that way in real life as well.
There has to be a level of respect,
maturity, willingness to work together.

I've seen through the many years I've been posting
on various boards, I've seen it all. I pretty much know
when a decline begins and I know who to respond to
and who not to. Sometimes I can get it wrong, I read a
lot of poems. The most successful poets often

learn what they need to know and then move on.
They often move on to print fine chapbooks,
make a real name for themselves in the poetry world,
and I'd like to think they remember the time they spent
on a poetry board that hopefully added to the process.

I think we give too much power to a board. I have a friend
who ran a small grouop of writers in a private home.
Within weeks, there was ego tripping, infighting and gossip
and the whole group split up.

it's just about people and what they bring to the forums,
whether online or in real person, I think.

The question is a good one. And I hope something I've offered
here makes sense.
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Indeed you do make sense, ineese. Usually the practical perspective is best and Saint Occham once again owed a tithe. His razor too. It is as you say: just about people and what they bring to the table. Thanks.

Tere
Apr/8/2012, 2:30 pm Link to this post Send Email to Terreson   Send PM to Terreson
 
Katlin Profile
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Re: Are Poetry Boards Good for Poetry?


While searching for that Bly quote I mentioned wanting to find in another thread, I came across this site which mentions your essay, Tere:

■The Pee in the Pool of On Line <b>Poetry</b>, by Terreson « Clattery <b>...</b> by Clattery machinery (2008/04/20 08:20)
From the bias you bring to Terreson's article, I am thinking that by serious workshop, you may mean the most insulting or stifling boards–but I do not know which four you have in mind. ...... Comment by indy21 — April 25, 2008 @ 2:44 pm. Reply ...... In the end, Clattery, and nobody has to believe me, by now many people have called my motives into question, it is the newbees, the first round poets, the passionate youngsters, girl and boy, the middle-aged woman going ...


http://bryantmcgill.com/wiki/poetry/ee_cummings/ee_cummings_the_boys_i_mean_are_not_refined_44

Talk about the wayback machine, huh? emoticon

PS “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” emoticon emoticon

Last edited by Katlin, May/31/2012, 6:54 am
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