Is Popular Contemporary Poetry....Bad?
What do we think of when it comes to contemporary and modern poetry?
I picked up one of Rupi Kaur's books a month ago, 'the sun and her flowers', as to delve into popular poetry of this day and I returned it a week later. I was surprised that so many were obvious single statements with line breaks. One very popular poem titled 'there is a difference' was perfect representation of that:
you are lonely
but you are not alone
there is a difference - rupi kaur
Wow.
I have found, and this might be only my experience, that many of her contemporary poetry books are used for the aesthetic. It seems Kaur is one of many who have romanticized the idea of poetry and helped make it a staple of 'academia aesthetic' on pinterest. The topics that are brought up are used for the idea of them being brought up, and, when thinking past the aesthetic, are just pretentious and earnest. The image I chose for this post was the first image to come up when searching 'the sun and her flowers rupi kaur'. Whoa, poetry in the sunlight? That person must be so cool. The contents of the book are not being shown, yet the intent of showing their aesthetic poetry books is.
In third grade, my class was taught about poetry. Our assignment was to write a short pamphlet with multiple types of poems. We had to check off boxes for Haikus, Sonnets, Acrostics, limericks, and everyone's favorite, free verse. For that section we created poems with no grammar, and poems with beautiful words like dream, and poems with personal topics, and poems like Rupi Kaur's earnest statements.
Apart from the earnestness and simple writing, many modern poets focus only on themselves. A famous poet from the 80's, (yes, that is still on the modern side), Micheal Harris, wrote a poem titled 'Turning out the light', and despite its well thought out words, has a very personal meaning;
I touch his forehead, still warm,
in a blessing useless to anyone
but me; and brush the damp hair
out of his eyes, thinking
how extraordinary it is
that he has no breath.Your eyes were wide open
when the world fell away,
my lovely brother.
The poem does not apply to mostly anyone else besides Harris, and although it is not an overall 'bad poem', no one will relate to it. To pretentiously quote Aristotle, "Poetry is finer and more philosophical than history; for poetry expresses the universal, and history only the particular.". Harris's award winning poem 'Turning Out the Light' seems to display history. This personalized style of poetry is very similar to some of Kaur's earnest statements, and provides little flexibility for interpreters to think.
Perhaps this personal, simple, and earnest form of poetry is inevitable and needed for variety in the type of literature. Similar to paintings with a single dot of paint in the center, it is undeniably art, despite a different skill level being required. Those paintings are one end of the spectrum, and very much needed for diversity. One could also argue that the art of contemporary poetry or paintings of dots is underwhelming and useless, making way for a gradual development into chaos. Either way, this style exists whether or not some of us think it may be silly, but we can still look at what made this poetry come to be.
I believe, with my limited knowledge of poetry, that E. E. Cummings is one of the reasons behind the contemporary style. Although some of his poems are good, many include the grammatical errors that were present in my third grade poetry class, Rupi Kaur's book and many others. In a longer poem, that I will take an excerpt of so as to not take up 5 pages, titled 'Why' by Cummings, we are left asking "Why?":
'why
don't
be
sil
ly
,o no in-
deed;
money
can't do(never
did &
....'
...Why?
I believe that poetry is amazing in all ways, but some of the more modern and contemporary types are going in a new direction. Although there are many amazing poems made every day, the ones that populate mainstream audiences have qualities that differ and can be improved. Still, I acknowledge that I can be skeptical, and that my knowledge of poetry is incredibly limited, so I continue to think,
is Popular Contemporary Poetry....Bad?
-Diza :)
Hi Diza,
ReplyDeleteThis was a very interesting blog about poetry! I also remember having to write different types of poems in elementary school. I think that while modern poetry is different there is no such thing as bad poetry because it is a personal preference and may mean something to someone else. Of course that is coming form someone that does not read much poetry.
-Sasha
Poetry is one of those methods of writing that I will never understand. You can write many different variations of it and still contain a message inside. Even though I don't read as much poetry (although I did write a review about a poet who writes in a similar style), I think there isn't a line between "good" and "bad" poems and it's mainly more of expressing thoughts, feelings, or messages in a way that you want it to look or sound like.
ReplyDeleteHi Diza, I think what you brought up was an interesting topic. I was never really a poetry lover, so I can't really say anything about whether contemporary poetry is bad, but I think that you can't really compare the two. A better way to describe them is different.
ReplyDeleteNice article, Diza! The two examples of different poetry styles were interesting to read and compare. Though I don't read that much poetry, which is something that I want to change eventually, I can kinda see the appeal behind both styles even if I prefer one to another.
ReplyDelete