So as I mentioned here, the results of the Poetry Foundation’s mega-survey is now available on their website and offers all kinds of tasty nuggets about the American public’s poetic habits and preferences. Well, while I certainly appreciate all their hard work, I think maybe a quick survey of the passers-by of LitKicks is in order.
Let’s get ‘er done, shall we?
1. Do you even like poetry or are you totally faking it?
2. What’s the last book of poetry you’ve purchased (for yourself or a friend), borrowed or stolen?
3. Above all else, what most attracts you to a poem? Rhythm, rhyme, structure, the lack thereof? Is it the message that draws you in … the metaphor, the triggering of an emotion or memory? Does size matter? Of the poem.
4. With #3 in mind, is there a certain type or style of poetry that you like most? Really, it’s ok to admit that you just have a thing for senryu. Or maybe you’re more of a villanelle junkie. We’re not here to judge…
5. We covered everyone’s favoritest poem of all time here, but beyond your wonder of wonders, what is the last/most recent poem you’ve read that made you say “whoa”, “wow”, “heck yeah” or some similar expression of amazement? Maybe it was a re-read of an old standby, a new discovery or maybe it was something you stumbled across here? Maybe it was something from a Burger King commercial?
And finally …
6. If Walt Whitman went to Burger King, what would he order?
That’s it. Take your time, be sure to fill in the bubbles completely and as always, we promise to only use your answers for our usual nefarious purposes.
12 Responses
data, collected1. I do like
data, collected
1. I do like poetry. I swear.
2. Uh… I checked Petrarch’s Canzoniere out of the library in August. That was awhile ago, I admit, but I do a lot of poem reading online.
3. I don’t really know. It’s kind of like what Randy Jackson says about having a certain X factor. Sure, he’s talking about American Idol contestants and I’m talking about poetry, but really, that’s like that same thing. There’s no specific thing that means that I will like a poem, it’s more that when things come together (imagery, word choices, and, for the most part, a total lack of rhyming), I just take notice. Well, also, I like poems that don’t suck. As a general rule.
4. Not really, no.
5. Recently, I really liked this one by Robert Creeley.
6. Big buckin’ chicken. Obviously.
ok …1. Do you even like
ok …
1. Do you even like poetry or are you totally faking it?
… I used to fake it. Now I actually like it.
2. What’s the last book of poetry you’ve purchased (for yourself or a friend), borrowed or stolen?
… or read at Borders during a long lunch hour? That would be On Earth by Robert Creeley, dateline: today.
3. Above all else, what most attracts you to a poem? Rhythm, rhyme, structure, the lack thereof? Is it the message that draws you in … the metaphor, the triggering of an emotion or memory? Does size matter? Of the poem.
A good poem shoots off emotions like sparks. That’s what I like, when a poem starts doing that.
4. With #3 in mind, is there a certain type or style of poetry that you like most? Really, it’s ok to admit that you just have a thing for senryu. Or maybe you’re more of a villanelle junkie. We’re not here to judge…
I really like hiphop lyrics — the mixture of innovative rhyming schemes and confessional lyricism is what gets me. I guess that’s why I also like T. S. Eliot and Allen Ginsberg a lot.
5. We covered everyone’s favoritest poem of all time here, but beyond your wonder of wonders, what is the last/most recent poem you’ve read that made you say “whoa”, “wow”, “heck yeah” or some similar expression of amazement? Maybe it was a re-read of an old standby, a new discovery or maybe it was something you stumbled across here? Maybe it was something from a Burger King commercial?
I read an interesting news article about Anne Sexton, and looked up some of her old stuff. She was very good, I think.
6. If Walt Whitman went to Burger King, what would he order?
Definitely the onion rings.
da ta1. Do you even like
da ta
1. Do you even like poetry or are you totally faking it?
Sure, I like it.
2. What’s the last book of poetry you’ve purchased (for yourself or a friend), borrowed or stolen?
I confess to stealing. (Downloading Ginsberg’s spoken word – everything I can get my hands on – never underestimate the power of cyberbooks)
3. Above all else, what most attracts you to a poem? Rhythm, rhyme, structure, the lack thereof? Is it the message that draws you in … the metaphor, the triggering of an emotion or memory? Does size matter? Of the poem.
Size does matter – I can’t deal with huge long poems. However, if the Jamelah quoted Randy coined X factor is present, I’ll even ignore my bias towards length.
What grabs me is hit, crunch and snort. I like to be knocked over the head and dragged into the cave of no return. If a poem does that, I’m putty.
4. With #3 in mind, is there a certain type or style of poetry that you like most? Really, it’s ok to admit that you just have a thing for senryu. Or maybe you’re more of a villanelle junkie. We’re not here to judge…
Please don’t rhyme (unless it’s subtle and tongue-in-cheek). I like haiku and no-ku and words that demand to be read aloud. (As well as e.e. cummings who begged people not to read his stuff aloud – but to relish in the visual effects).
5. We covered everyone’s favoritest poem of all time here, but beyond your wonder of wonders, what is the last/most recent poem you’ve read that made you say “whoa”, “wow”, “heck yeah” or some similar expression of amazement? Maybe it was a re-read of an old standby, a new discovery or maybe it was something you stumbled across here? Maybe it was something from a Burger King commercial?
I’ve discovered 2 new poets. One is Azul Salvaje, a poet/musician from Victoria, B.C. and a poet who calls herself beeonfleur, who plays words like a resin seducer. Both of these people wow me almost every time. Jota (no link out of laziness) also wowed me a few days ago with his words here on Litkicks, as did i’mhep, Craig Moore.
And finally …
6. If Walt Whitman went to Burger King, what would he order?
Walt Whitman in Burger King would order the salad with 1,000 Island Dressing.
With no poetry, no rock ‘
With no poetry, no rock ‘ roll
1. I have copied several times a poem from “Coney Island of the Mind” and Ginsberg’s “On Burrough’s Work” whenever I get a new phone book. I like lyrics that work for songs.
2. I bought Pushcart Prizes XXX.
3. The last poem that I really liked was A. Van Jordan’s “The Night Richard Pryor Met Redbone”. There was a quote in 8 point font at the beginning. The first line drew me in just like the first scotch rocks does that is drained in nearly one pull. One line after another and it kept building, just like a good drunk coming on.
4. If I read a poem and my eye starts skipping lines, I usually don’t finish it. Pound for pound, an atom bomb does more damage than TNT but whatever works lengthwise but one word might be too short. I might get lost in anything longer than “The Love Song Of J Alfred Prufrock”.
5. I hear a lot of Chinese stuff that I like the sound of but I don’t understand all the words.
A. Van Jordan’s “The Night Richard Pryor Met Redbone” made me feel good because I liked the language and identified with the subject and it gave me hope for my future.
6. Whitman: “Coffee, black, please. All I need’s in my head.”
well, now…1. I like poetry
well, now…
1. I like poetry but I do not go out of my way to read it. I like prose better. Having said that, once in a while I read a poem that really touches me with an inner light.
2. I can count every book of poetry I own on one hand:
Danger on Peaks – Gary Snyder
Sketches of A Return Journey – Jamelah Earle
Firecracker – Caryn Thurman
I Hit Like A Girl – Debbie Kirk
Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman
(I didn’t pay for any of them; I am a wretch)
3. Q: Above all else, what most attracts you to a poem?
A: I don’t know. If it doesn’t grab me quick, I can’t finish it.
4. Q: With #3 in mind, is there a certain type or style of poetry that you like most?
A: Not really.
5. Q: what is the last/most recent poem you’ve read that made you say “whoa”, “wow”, “heck yeah”…
A: There are so many good poems right here on the LitKicks Action Poetry page. If I have to name one name, it would have to be Jota.
6. I picture Walt Whitman purchasing one of those hot apple pies at Burger King, then going somewhere to lay in the grass while the pie cools in the breeze.
I refuse……based on my
I refuse…
…based on my revulsion to the phrase “get ‘er done”.
reply1. Do you even like
reply
1. Do you even like poetry or are you totally faking it?
i like it.
2. What’s the last book of poetry you’ve purchased (for yourself or a friend), borrowed or stolen?
for myself: georg trakl, fifty poems
for a friend: collection of contemporary german poetry in english translation (can’t recall the title)
3. Above all else, what most attracts you to a poem? Rhythm, rhyme, structure, the lack thereof? Is it the message that draws you in … the metaphor, the triggering of an emotion or memory? Does size matter? Of the poem.
if mood and emotion grab me and drag me in…. yeah. unique imagery and word choices also attract me.
shortness – few words that say much.
to be cradled, pushed, hit, sparked, caught by rhythm. to get a sudden flash of recognition, or enlightenment, or simply “yeah”.
to feel that the poem is family…. or fascinating stranger.
i like it when the words speak for themselves, independantly of the content. when you can read the poem and not understand the vocabulary, and still get a message.
(and the more i write about it, the more i think i go for that x-factor jamelah mentions. it’s just like it is with music — you never know.)
4. With #3 in mind, is there a certain type or style of poetry that you like most? Really, it’s ok to admit that you just have a thing for senryu. Or maybe you’re more of a villanelle junkie. We’re not here to judge…
i like rhythm and melody – i like it when the words paint scenes by their sheer sound.
rhyming or not doesn’t matter. the flow does.
5. We covered everyone’s favoritest poem of all time here, but beyond your wonder of wonders, what is the last/most recent poem you’ve read that made you say “whoa”, “wow”, “heck yeah” or some similar expression of amazement? Maybe it was a re-read of an old standby, a new discovery or maybe it was something you stumbled across here? Maybe it was something from a Burger King commercial?
i’ve just received judih’s latest poetry chapbook, along with a spoken word cd, spoken by judih, herself. i used many expressions of amazement when i read and listened simultaneously!
i’ve also read some celan and nelly sachs online recently, and was in awe, as always when i read their words.
6. If Walt Whitman went to Burger King, what would he order?
i can’t picture walt whitman buying anything at burger king. but it may simply be that i’m not getting the true essence of either burger king or walt.
my take on it1. LOVE poetry!
my take on it
1. LOVE poetry!
2. Latest book: Fellow Feelings by Richard Howard
3. Size shouldn’t matter….but I’ll be honest: I much prefer a poem that is short (or just a page or two). I want instant gratification with poems. As far as what I am looking for — I find that my favorite poems are ones that express feelings I’ve had/have in a way that goes beyond any way that I could ever express them. So, in a nutshell: it’s all about me!
4. Definitely prefer free verse and am pretty much anti-rhyme (except for the great rhymes in the movie the Princess Bride, of course!).
5. The poem I discovered lately that really snagged me was Stevie Smith’s “Not Waving but Drowning.” Wow. http://www.steviesmith.org/notwaving.html
6. Regarding good ol’ Walt — I have a feeling he’d be standing out there by the drive in window trying to get someone’s attention. And then he’d just hitch a ride with the next folks to drive up.
rank folly1. i wonder if i
rank folly
1. i wonder if i love or hate poetry. i’ve written more of it than i’d care admit. i get accused of it when i’d call that prose. ah the power. at least it got me out of the midwest.
2. ‘in the seasons of my eye’ by marty matz. he also left the midwest.
3./4. is art about sublimity? the indescribable?
i like long poems when they really work. donald goldbarth’s ‘donald duck in danish’; e.a. poe’s ‘raven’; frank o’hara’s ‘second avenue’. (among any number of epics and the faerie queen)
that said, long poems can be boring as watching golf on a rainy sunday.
why not write a pager that kicks lits? or… a sonnet like e.e. cummings?
short, concise, makes sense.
5. ‘The Tree’ Ezra Pound
I stood still and was a tree amid the wood,
Knowing the truth of things unseen before;
Of Daphne and the laurel bow
And that god-feasting couple old
that grew elm-oak amid the wold.
‘Twas not until the gods had been
Kindly entreated, and been brought within
Unto the hearth of their heart’s home
That they might do this wonder thing;
Nathless I have been a tree amid the wood
And many a new thing understood
That was rank folly to my head before.
6. 3 whopper juniors, onion rings and xl coffee with too much cream and sugar.
A Lover, Not A HaterTrue that
A Lover, Not A Hater
True that poetry is a genre that can be viewed in many different ways. The traditionalists generally view rhyme scheme, meter, rhythm. But, I like the way modern poets view poetry as well. Experimental. Dare I say, odd. Nothing like something you’ve never seen before. A twist on the original concept behind poetry. I like how it grows over time. You may have started with broader themes and they slowly evolve into something else altogether.
1. I LOVE POETRY – It is my life’s mission.
2. Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s, A Coney Island of the Mind. I have a hippie mentality and the best poets do it for me. Also, it’s a hard find.
3. It’s a combination of message, emotional validity, resonance. If I can’t relate to the poem, I just blow it off. Size, unlike other things in life, DOESN’T MATTER. I’m a nostagia hound, so if the poem conveys some random experience, I really stick to it. Let me say too that it helps if it’s not just words on a page. Some poems are just meant to be read. Aloud. So I love those too.
4. Confessional always gets me.
5. One-Word Poem by David R. Slavitt
6. The Whopper. Not just because of the name…hello? Whopper? But, because it’s made of meat, get it?
Been a while……but here it
Been a while…
…but here it goes.
1) It’s what I’m studying in grad school at the moment (with Bob Perelman no less, if any of you have read his stuff). And yes, I do actually like it.
2) Bought: ALL: Collected Shorter Poems by Louis Zukofsky
Borrowed: The Complete Ezra Pound Contributions to Periodicals, Vol. 2
3) The relationship between the poetics and the poem itself. I always find it interesting to figure out how true a poet is to his/her own self-proclaimed poetics. One of the things most interesting about Pound is how often he contradicts his own poetics. It’s a really fascinating way to gain insight into a poem and a poet.
4) At the moment I’m really into modernist poetry A LOT. Pound, Eliot, Zukofsky, W.C. Williams, Yeats, etc. I just recently sort of uncovered Zukofsky and am falling completely in love with him actually.
5) Again, on a Zukofsky kick but I just read “Poem Beginning ‘The'” for a class by Zukofsky and it was absolutely brilliant. Though, I also really, really enjoyed Harlem Gallery by Melvin Tolson.
6. The Hershey’s Pie which he would not eat, but use to lure impulsive younger men into intimate conversation. I mean, it would work for me…
1) Me live for poetry.2) Don
1) Me live for poetry.
2) Don Juan By George Lord Byron. Half of which I’ve read. I like.
3) Rhythm, rhyme, structure, the lack thereof? Is it the message that draws you in … the metaphor, the triggering of an emotion or memory? No, none of that. I don’t know what it is. A true poem is something Divine. Unnameable.
4)I do appreciate the craft of writing something in Form. It takes guts. Talent. And Practice. If you can say something of such sublime beauty in a sonnet, or in a longer form of Spenserian lines like “Adonis” by Shelley. You got the muse on your side.
5) Prome to the Brooklyn Bridge. I wanted to cry. Cross reference it with “Crossing the Brooklyn Ferry”
6) I can imagine Walter. Acned, unshaven, working at Burger King for minimum wage. Taking orders during the day, flipping burgers, eying the fry boy…but splitting godlike stanzas of thunder out on a computer in his moms basement by night.