Most Poetry Is Ugly | Bad Writing

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[thomasthepoet]

Rupi Kaur is not an example of good poetry. It’s popular because it’s simple, empathically accessible, and doesn’t require much creative/poetic intelligence to digest. But it’s not good poetry.

[foreverdirt]

Usually Rupi Kaur is used as an example of bad poetry. He style is very muted and not very poetic. That doesn't make it bad, and clearly the meaning of her work has resonance for a lot of people, like this guy. But I think poetry is better when it is poetic, i.e. stylized. When it isn't written like a journal entry, and instead the words play off each other in ways that you don't hear very often, giving them a feeling of significance. When they appear in patterns that are aesthetically pleasing and give the piece rhythm. People forget that poetry is an aesthetic art as well as a communication art.

[GreenLanternFarms]

I thought this was satire at first. "I used to hate paintings. They were so abstract & unrelateable. Then I found Gacy's clown portraits. They resonated with me on so many levels." Hate to break it to you, Joshua, but you still hate poetry. You just don't know what it is.

[rievans]

There is a thin line between poetry and word salad.

[joshualavender]

First, that John Kinsella poem -- why didn't you follow it to the end and give us a chance to find out whether it was going to make its point/purpose plain? -- is far from the worst or least accessible poetry I've seen or heard. I could but won't get into how you read it, which is highly subjective territory. Instead, secondly, I just want to point out that your criteria for "good" poetry, demonstrated via that Kaur poem, is myopic. Yes, "saying concisely something you feel in your heart" is one way poems speak to readers, but it's not the only way. If you think it must be, then what you want of poetry is *only* what you already know -- you don't want it to challenge you, ever. Is that an expectation you have of all prose? I doubt it. Then why do you have it of poetry? Why is a poem only "good" if it meets that expectation?

[samilentrau]

I want my poetry hideous. I want it to disgust those who judge. I want to confuse you and other critics. I want to write ugly words that only resonate to five people or whatever

[tamagotchispy]

don't teach anyone anything please

[cosmoetica]

You called a bad poem by a hack bad, which is good, then a horrible poem by a doggerelist good, which is bad.

I'd like to think this video and idiot are just trolling, but I know they're not.

In honor of this horror, a cliche: those who can, do. Those who can't, teach, or propagate bad video content.

[TheLadyPrefersSave]

Yet, poetry isn’t simply juxtaposition or pentameter. Its nuanced. It’s also incredibly gendered. Often, it’s own social movement.

“Because I could not stop for Death —
He kindly stopped for me —
The Carriage held but just Ourselves
—
And Immortality.”
-Emily Dickinson

[BKNeifert]

You got to read poetry a couple dozen times to really get it. Spend about as much time reading 30 lines as you would a 30 page short story. Then you'll get it.

To be honest with you the first poem was a lot better. The second's just Instagram poetry. You're not supposed to get a poem right away. They're supposed to be studied down to the very punctuation, and soaked in for a long time. And then returned to throughout a lifetime.

Poetry isn't superficial. It's not something you're really supposed to understand right away, but if you give it time, and really wrestle with it, some of your best reading experiences will come from it.

Like, poetry opens your mind to whole new levels of thinking, too. Getting as deep as you did on that one, you can go so much deeper on a poem by Keats or Wordsworth. It just opens the mind to such strong thoughts, that once you see it, you'll be hooked for life. Trust me. It's like, you got to see it... then you know exactly what it's all about. You can't until you do.

[AnnaMaledonPictureBookAuthor]

I read poetry and write poetry and I would say good poetry is somewhere in the middle. You shouldn't be on extreme ends: either extremally convoluted, so a reader doesn't understand a thing, and you shouldn't be simplistic either. A novel is called a novel because it follows some rules for novels, a poem ideally should employ some poetic devices too, otherwise why should we even call it a poem?

I do get why some people like Rupi's book - because they can finally understand poetry, but that doesn't mean her poems should be given as an example of good poetry. I haven't read any of her books, but all the literature professors I watched here on YouTube say her poems are examples of bad, bland, lazy poetry. Some admit that she can be an entry point to poetry, but they don't suggest mimicking her style because she scarcely employs any poetic devices.

[anime]

I think kaur poem is like a fridge full of old whisky and expired milk; it’s a peculiar combination that, while containing a bit of the world’s truth, is overwhelmingly soured by the expired milk, despite the small amount of aged whisky

[pjandbooks]

You're missing something. I wish you would have allowed the first poem the context of being read all the way through. 🙂 what I've found is that poetry is often told with such an up close Lense that it helps to be able to relate to the writer in some way. For instance I did not have a big taste for poetry until I started reading poems by bipoc people. I understood, because I was them in so many ways. You can use these writers as training wheels to guide you through the genre. Then when you have a taste for language, rhythm, and often used forms, you can fly.

[catherinegruber]

Thank you for this! I cannot agree more! 👏 As a poet (yes, published & awarded) I find so much current poetry just pretentious babble. It’s hard to offer the world simple, sometimes traditional, thoughtful, accessible work when the attention goes mainly to the … crap. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Glad I’m not the only one seeing this!

[JohnAllen-gikj]

I think you're intimidated by poetry and fear anything abstract because you're afraid of being revealed as something you're not-stupid, or not in touch with art, or whatever. You chose the most obvious poem.

[johncrwarner]

Bad poetry has always existed
It has been written for millennia
The point is that
normally it isn't published.

I was rereading a poet
U. A. Fanthorpe
and I went through picking the poems
that "spoke to my condition"
and I was surprised how few did
most were "okay" or "meh"
only five or six were copied into my commonplace book
because they had resonances,
intrigued me or I know off by heart.

I have a suspicion that the winnowing process
separating the wheat from the chaff
that happens in a writers head
in their selection of writing
to submit for publication
is faulty.

By the way
this isn't written as poetry
It uses a technique
developed by a mathenatics professor
called Lillian Lieber who wrote
mathematics books in this style.
She wrote of her style:

"This is not intended to be
free verse.
Writing each phrase on a separate line
facilitates rapid reading,
and everyone
is in a hurry"


nowadays.

[tamjg]

Glad you're talking about poetry.

[philipmcluskey]

another 'writer' who doesn't understand poetry tells us what is good and bad poetry???

[mauriceslevines]

You are not simply imagining things. The poetry is that bad.

[RelentlessSoul]

Rupi's books seem to have the popularity - good marketing? The poem about her seeing her mother in a dream was so flat and boring, considering I've lost my own mother.