I like poetry that makes me laugh
and I can tolerate some of the stuff that doesn't. Unfortunately, after developing a a cynicism towards it at GCSE I was less than impressed when a friend of mine accidentally got us stuck at a poetry night in some bar. I didn't mind the occasional funny poem, but the rest of it really was the pinnacle of pretentious, navel-gazing cockcheese.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:43, 1 reply, 15 years ago)

99% of people at poetry readings
are other poets, the rest are people who are there by accident. The whole thing is feeding off itself and has ceased to have any real relevance outside of poetic circles.

In my opinion, for something to be considered an art form, it has to be capable of speaking to people who don't actually create it.

This is more or less what I said in that essay.
( Kroney, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:47, Reply)

I think you have a very good point there
Speaking as the 1% who was not there by design, it was nothing short of cringeworthy.
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:49, Reply)

I'm still bitter about that essay
grumble grumble gripe gripe
( Kroney, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:50, Reply)

Write a poem about it.
That'll show 'em.

EDIT: Seriously, there was a woman there trying to make her poems sound profound despite reading them in her unashamedly ghastly Essex accent and then doing a tap dance after each one. What the fuck was that supposed to be about?
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:51, Reply)

I have written one poem
which I submitted to the same class. It was long and based on being hungover. It was vulgar, it mentioned poo and vomit. They praised the meter completely without irony.

I had lifted the meter wholesale from Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven".
( Kroney, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:53, Reply)

This wasn't Kroney's "The Vindaloo," was it?
Plenty of chances to mention defecation and regurgitation, with the main theme being
"Quoth my arsehole, 'never more.'"
(LongJohnBaldry, Tue 30 Nov 2010, 17:56, Reply)