Fashion Poetics IV Addendum
Poets.org's list of "Most Popular Contemporary Poets" for 2008:
1. Billy Collins
2. Gwendolyn Brooks
3. Charles Simic
4. Nikki Giovanni
5. Gary Soto
6. Allen Ginsberg
7. Kay Ryan
8. Rita Dove
9. Adrienne Rich
10. Naomi Shihab Nye
11. Mary Oliver
12. John Ashbery
13. Donald Hall
14. Louise Glück
15. Lucille Clifton
16. Sharon Olds
17. Yusef Komunyakaa
18. Sonia Sanchez
19. Jane Kenyon
20. Mark Strand
Sweet Jesus. Ginsberg? I love the guy, but he's not Contemporary. "Contemporary to what?" I suppose is the question.
Actually, let's take this a step further (from Dictionary.reference.com):
con⋅tem⋅po⋅rar⋅y /kənˈtɛmpəˌrɛri/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuhn-tem-puh-rer-ee] Show IPA adjective, noun, plural -rar⋅ies.
–adjective 1. existing, occurring, or living at the same time; belonging to the same time: Newton's discovery of the calculus was contemporary with that of Leibniz.
2. of about the same age or date: a Georgian table with a contemporary wig stand.
3. of the present time; modern: a lecture on the contemporary novel.
–noun 4. a person belonging to the same time or period with another or others.
5. a person of the same age as another.
Let's go with #3, "of present time." This list is a Barnes and Noble list of poets and people that people have heard of. Brooks? Love her stuff. Dead. Not contemporary, I'm sorry to say.
I suppose this actually has little to do with the issue of 'difficult' poetry, other than having come directly from the previous posting's thoughts on canon. I suppose the only real point I could make here is that these are the people that end up in textbooks and in high school heads and ears. OK, so very few of these people are in textbooks, but the mentality is there. And I think the only reason some folks are on this list is because there are people who vote them up with no real interest in moving beyond a canon. They're interested in perpetuating the same group of people they've been thinking about and hearing about for the last 30 years.
1. Billy Collins
2. Gwendolyn Brooks
3. Charles Simic
4. Nikki Giovanni
5. Gary Soto
6. Allen Ginsberg
7. Kay Ryan
8. Rita Dove
9. Adrienne Rich
10. Naomi Shihab Nye
11. Mary Oliver
12. John Ashbery
13. Donald Hall
14. Louise Glück
15. Lucille Clifton
16. Sharon Olds
17. Yusef Komunyakaa
18. Sonia Sanchez
19. Jane Kenyon
20. Mark Strand
Sweet Jesus. Ginsberg? I love the guy, but he's not Contemporary. "Contemporary to what?" I suppose is the question.
Actually, let's take this a step further (from Dictionary.reference.com):
con⋅tem⋅po⋅rar⋅y /kənˈtɛmpəˌrɛri/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [kuhn-tem-puh-rer-ee] Show IPA adjective, noun, plural -rar⋅ies.
–adjective 1. existing, occurring, or living at the same time; belonging to the same time: Newton's discovery of the calculus was contemporary with that of Leibniz.
2. of about the same age or date: a Georgian table with a contemporary wig stand.
3. of the present time; modern: a lecture on the contemporary novel.
–noun 4. a person belonging to the same time or period with another or others.
5. a person of the same age as another.
Let's go with #3, "of present time." This list is a Barnes and Noble list of poets and people that people have heard of. Brooks? Love her stuff. Dead. Not contemporary, I'm sorry to say.
I suppose this actually has little to do with the issue of 'difficult' poetry, other than having come directly from the previous posting's thoughts on canon. I suppose the only real point I could make here is that these are the people that end up in textbooks and in high school heads and ears. OK, so very few of these people are in textbooks, but the mentality is there. And I think the only reason some folks are on this list is because there are people who vote them up with no real interest in moving beyond a canon. They're interested in perpetuating the same group of people they've been thinking about and hearing about for the last 30 years.
