ON THE WRITING OF POETRY

 

If There Are Rules To This Who Made Them And Why

 

 

 

Gen-M Literary Metamodernism

Seth Abramson has an essay up on literary Metamodernism (defined here: http://www.metamodernism.org/) over here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/seth-abramson/on-literary-metamodernism_b_3629021.html.

Here’s the opening sentence:

It’s not so often anymore that we read a book of poetry and think to ourselves, “This poet means exactly what they say.” 

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I’m still thinking about that sentence.  I’ve been thinking about it a day or so.  I know (kind of) where Abramson is coming from, but I still can’t grasp it.  Is there a feeling, then, that as we read most books of poetry (new poetry, I’m imagining?) we get the feeling that this poet doesn’t mean exactly what they say?  I can see that, I suppose, but it’s not really a question that comes to my mind while reading a book of poetry.  I guess it does in a book where that is a foregrounded question, when it’s way up front, but I don’t usually think to myself “does this poet mean exactly what is being said here?” 

It’s an interesting perspective, but I don’t share it.  That problematizes my reading of the essay, as I can’t quite ride with the anxiety for authenticity that permeates the rest of the piece.  But I can understand that if one does have that feeling, that the poetry one is reading doesn’t mean exactly what it’s saying, then I can see what Abramson is getting at. 

Maybe it’s a generational thing, and I’m slipping out of generational relevance.  It happens to us all.