Writing Meta: Why don't I get poetry?

[amanuensis1]

During insomnia night this week, I read a professional insititution's glossy creativity publication that had been given to me. The photos were pretty, the essays...not as horrible as they could have been, the poetry I thought was appalling. Schmaltz, doggerel, sentimental claptrap. Amateur pirouettes on a page, terribly proud of themselves for showing off their cut-apart structure and boring as spit. These students didn't even know how to write limericks; there was a two-page spread of them and not one of them had the correct scansion of a limerick. God. I read through the book thinking, what the hell did they reject?

Is it just me? I always admit that I don't have a poet's soul; I have no inclination to write poetry other than funny doggerel, and very little poetry resonates with me. Sometimes it does. The moments are rare, but wonderful. Is it just me, is most poetry dreadful cloying crap? Just because you're grieving or in pain, that doesn't mean you can create good art.

Comments

[melannen.livejournal.com]

There's such a thing as good poetry, but people who haven't bothered to learn proper scansion for a limerick? Should not be trusted with anything resembling poetry. (And I say this as a former college lit mag editor who would have killed to get a properly scanned limerick once in a while.)

[amanuensis1.livejournal.com]

I would have rejected everything with incredible glee. "Doesn't scan, doesn't scan, doesn't scan, scans but sucks, doesn't scan..."

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

I agree with this comment so hard I want to reach through the screen and smooch it.