I mean, with a title like that what else can you say? William has done my job for me with that one. He has also provided an excellent poem too. But that goes without saying.
There is not enough poetry in the world in my opinion. Good poetry, true poetry, funny and wise poetry. Thankfully the likes of
are fighting the good fight and are fixing that problem as we speak.Enjoy.
TJB.
“Do you want to be part of our project?” say the poets who write in free verse. “It’s fresh and it’s new and exciting— it’s the future, for better or worse; to be sure, if you want to be relevant you’ll find it’s entirely true that the best you can do is come with us and we’ll show you just what you should do.” “No!” say the New Formalists, caught up in their worship of past methods and practices, fixated on the doings of dead men, desperately holding onto a cultural hegemony that they haven’t noticed is entirely obsolete. ”We’ll write our measured lyrics, thank you very much, and may you and your kind be forgotten and ignored!” “I only want to read some poetry,” the average person on the sidewalk says. “But all you poets, with your formal wars, are muddying the issue, and I can’t decide whose verse is worth my time to read. Please, someone, help me! I just don’t have time to sort through all these chapbooks and reviews!” The critic comes: “Ah, friend, I know how hard it is to form your taste when all you see is confusion and infighting. Here, let me help. I wrote something, and you might find it clears things up: a critical essay: it’s here.”
Clever.😁
Haha, they all make good targets, New Formalists included, but I’ll wear the ‘New Formalist’ label proudly. What’s old is new again. I don’t mind being elitist and obsolete. Meter and rhyme are the music of poetry and I’ll go down with the ship.