Discussion → The Poetry Wars

• 
  Darryl Price

  Sep 16, 01:36pm

  
  

  are an awful affair. We've lost many beautiful souls to the ongoing battle--Emily Dickinson for instance. We've saved what we could of her for future generations but have lost all communication beyond the obvious.John's forever frozen at forty.Etc.Dr. Seuss. Good God--look outside the box!The enemy is extremely cunning and cold-hearted.They have set traps for you every step of the way. A butterfly's death to them is a victory.But poetry like flowers grow in spite of the bombs.Like the Rolling Stones said, "They like to flatter,flatter,flatter--pile it up high on the platter." But make no mistake. They hate beauty as much as truth.We've had some incredible heroes. Wallace Stevens. E.E.Cummings. And lately James Tate.But it's you I'm most interested in. What will you do to not go under their thumb?

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• 
  Darryl Price

  Apr 13, 09:54am

  
  

  Don't know why but this thought just crossed my mind:E.E.Cummings invented poetry. Emily Dickinson invented poetry. Walt Whitman invented poetry.They didn't copy poetry. They didn't accept limitations for its existence. They believed in poetry. They lived it. They witnessed.They pushed through poetry. They found more poetry than ever. They joined their hearts to it.Only after they were brave enough to do these things in the name of poetry were they called up as fine new examples.

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• 
  Ann Bogle

  Apr 13, 10:09am

  
  

  "There were poets' “wars,” waged with toothpicks. The front was not in the South nor in the North. Nor was it out West where the bookstores flourished nor in the East where a tree grew. In Brooklyn? where rent was a little lighter. We were guessing. And what of “the short story,” literary genre that proliferated yet ceased to exist after the “renaissance” of the 1980s? A few of those writers had gone down “early.” Carver had died. An epic novelist, men reasoned, would live longer. A heart attack was reported as a suicide; a suicide in an epic novelist was based on “experimental.” The turnstile let one slide in beside the others; no car would await thee at the airport, but the train would arrive."

  --from "Hoss Men (divided)":

  http://www.fictionaut.com/stories/ann-bogle/hoss-men-divided-2

  and "Hoss Men (continued)," in which I attempt a publishing/drug war retrospective of the 1990s.

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• 
  Darryl Price

  Apr 14, 01:28pm

  
  

  Ann- I love that! Because it is so interesting to read and full of bite and sarcasm and playfulness. Very cool, my friend.

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