blooogs

Poetry blogs everywhere, not one about poetry. I read poetry blogs whenever I can, but can't find any that talk about poetry. Just schedules, meetings, announcements, stuff, general stuff. Not much different than the poems I read.

WELL TOM, that's the way people are. Most people are concerned with their immediate world, since they have to be concerned with their immediate world.

If you don't have something to say, don't put it in a poem.

Main Street

Locals.

Musicians

True Light

Out in the midwest, an evening shindig as the last of the light fades. Half a dozen musicians sing songs and play tunes, and the locals come out and sit their chairs on the bricks of main street. True light, very close the marked geographic center of the US.

1-2

Now a-days, every time I listen to poets talk, I am shocked by how much they want to belong. They really want to belong to a group or class or something. Imagine Van Gogh or Picasso or Frost squabbling to belong to some group full of wanna-bees, old women and old men blithering on about stuff they know.

NOW TOM, everyone wants to belong and to be understood by their peers. Who else really understands them? In the poetry world, the audience is made of people who write poetry themselves, thus the group is formed whether or not anyone chooses to be a part or not. Relax, be friends with the people who even have the least inclination to appreciate similar values in any art field.

NGTV

There is an old rule: if you are negative, people won't like you. Therefore, it is better to be positive and praise everything, then you will be liked. Human nature simply thinks in this manner. It is a sort of mob effect. Everyone wants to be liked.

What to do? Just try not to draw anyone's fire. What poet said that?

Arrowgants.

Poets do exhibit personality trait patterns. The first is arrogance. This remarkable trait has several major functions, such as to cover over insecurity and mediocrity. Arrogance hides behind politically correct signposts: the poet will not explain their art, they act unapproachable, and they 'network' which means they praise others to get praise back. Another form of hidden arrogance is exposed by listening to the substructure of their expressions; this is very subtle: they talk 'inclusively' rather than 'exclusively.' True creativity by nature is exclusive. But if one can't be creative, well, one might as well be included, so they put on their party hat and say, Look at me! I'm a poet!

I probably sound like an old sourpuss.

Some watch TV, some stay up all night,
their keyboard struck with lines of blue moonlight.

Classic, Contemporary

It seems only poets read poetry. However curious, the general public does not read poetry. At least not on a regular basis. There doesn't seem to be any classical thinking when I read contemporary poets, everything is, well, contemporary, and usually the poem seems to be art-therapy of some sort for the poet, not the reader.

Art to be art must be classical. One more poem about the dead uncle's hat found in the closet and...nothing.
Contemporary becomes classical? Oh, sure, but what level are we on? Let's stay on a high level. Class struggles, religious wars, and culture inequities are not of raised consciousness. Classical essence is to create how the future can be considered and seen, not how the past or present is considered or seen.

When you write, write for the future. If I said this before here, sorry.