Saturday, December 09, 2006

Polarity

I've had a lot of fun in not being, may I say, positive toward most poetry. I dispense, disparingly, a dearth of praise. So some have thought me negative: an actual negative person. "I am not negative," I maintain. Every ten or fifteen years I come across one decent poem.**

Name the most recent classical composer of symphonies.
Name a living artist who is alive and great today.
There aren't many anywhere, and the same is true for poetry. Yet if one mingles with poets, there seem to be a multitude of poets who are great, right there, all around.

**Well, more than that. But I am trying to make a point on the pattern, not the exception. The exception to the rule does not disprove the rule.

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