Good poetry does the opposite of “poetic” things to me
Good poetry: uses words to rip away verbal lenses and direct attention to wondrous-banal pre-verbal experiences that I’ve become blind to
“Poetic” things: fully obscures what I can partly see with thick verbal theater
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Time experience seems to attract both good poetry and “poetic” theater
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I don’t mind theatrical poetry that sets out to be theatrical. It’s what I think of as “failed expressionism” where you try to cover up your failure to actually see the core of what you’re looking at with lots of extra besides-the-point fussiness. Like verbal premium mediocrity.
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Good poetry: “look at that TV screen reflected in that drop of condensation”
Intentional theater: “To see the world in a grain of sand...”
Failed expressionism: “The sunset evokes an intense, richly textured tapestry of poignant emotions”
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Chesterton said something similar.
People said he was using language to add poetry to the banal aspects of the world.
He said that language was what made the world seem banal in the first place.
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Used to write poetry and always ended up the theatrical type. I like wordplay but didn't intend this. Never knew why. You just made me see was prob because I didn't have clarity on the topic.
Maybe also why theatrical poetry about a topic you know well sounds forced.



