Poetry Wars!

Poetry Wars!

There is a very interesting article on Michael Farry's website about the "Poetry Ireland Review 100" or to be more specific, an item by Maria Johnston of Trinity (Reading Irish Poetry In The New Century) in which she declares that the Emperor has no clothes. Or should that be Emperors? Perhaps a little harsh in the judgement in that she names names (I haven't read the item) but is she right? It is easy to criticise and you can probably trawl through any century and find fault, but is it any worse today? People don't adhere to the same grammatical constraints as in more enlightened times (That is before there was any light!), but poetry today is more of a conversation piece than a musical melody and the goalposts have moved. Not that I'd know anything about grammatical constraints, but frankly Scarlet... There is an argument out there that too many people are writing poetry and not enough reading it, but I don't agree. The more the merrier. The more people write it the more they will read it. Goodnight!

Photo: Cherry Blossom Tree. Enjoy it while it lasts.