Poetry & Plunder: Collecting AC Poets & Poetry (4/1/11)

A mentor of mine, a brilliant poet named Brook Hallock, once told me the way a poet should work at his or her craft was simply to read more poetry.

"Go to the library," she said. "Find the poetry section. Start at authors beginning with A and don't stop until you're done."

I've followed her advice. I start at the beginning but never seem to get to Z without cheating; without skipping ahead. If you imagine the web as a library shelved with poetry... where would you even start? The literature that makes its way to the internet is part library, part diary and part graffiti. (And 90% awful.)

I have found a number of poets that participate in Associated Content whose work I enjoy and some who I consider colleagues and friends. I subscribe to the "poetry lover's thread" but I don't check it religiously (or even sacrilegiously) and I scroll through the forum trying to decide which poems to read. Do I start at the most recently posted? The author beginning with the letter A? The best spelled or formatted entreaty? By title? Rank? Date joined?

So many poems. So short attention span. I had to start somewhere. So I started a discussion on the forum asking other poets how they decided.

G.L. Morrison - 04/03/2011 at 4:51:26 AM
Posts: 12 Joined: 06/05/2008

Out of curiosity:

*How many poems do you look at/follow from the poetry lovers thread?
*How do you decide which poem? By title? Topic? Author?
*Do you follow the poets you like? Do you automatically follow poets that follow you? Do you prefer variety (searching new poets) or wait for new work from poets you know?

and finally...

*What in your humble opinion makes a good poem?

No answers yet.

The most ripples in the conversational pond that my questions got were a sort of elongated "Good question" from one person.

rama Devi Nina posted:

"GL Morrison--I will think about your questions. But answering them might require an essay length post!"

Perhaps I should write back suggesting that like me she channel her frustration (and indecisiveness) into that essay.

But maybe no one answered because no one was reading poetry, just posting "read me, read me." If that was true, who would read our essays about poetry? Who would read a column about **The Best of Net Poetry**?

Apparently you would.

Some of you have surfed here if only to look for your own name. Others will be looking at the overwhelmingly long virtual library shelf and mumbling "start at the beginning and go to the end?"

Here is A Beginning. My first Poetry & Plunder column. Poetry & Plunder: the April Fool's edition. Not because I'm fooling when I say these poets deserve another look but because I started by looking at poems published to Associated Content on the first day of April, National Poetry Month 2011. April 1st also happens to be April Fools Day and I encountered some terrific and terrible poems aware of the theme.

I've spared you the terrible. Here then is the terrific.

Rena McGee 's April Fool's Day Trickster-ku

Brilliant tribute in senryu to 5 tricksters of ancient and modern mythology. Tightly written 5-7-5's that seem neither sparse nor coerced. Smart, witty and thoughtful odes --with an educational twist (footnotes!)-- sort of like the chewy center in your tootsiepop. What's not to like?

and another great find wasDarlene Alvarez, her poem The Collector has flashes of brilliance. I was particularly moved by the lines:

Someone tell them
You can't take it with you
What you collect
Takes you

Ms. Alvarez is continuing her celebration of National Poetry Month with a poem a day ...and counting. I can't embrace them all equally but I liked Poem:Maybe It Was Decaf? as well. I enjoyed the impish y a w n for its lightly e.e. cummings way.

The rest of the work seems more diary than diligence but I am not easily impressed.