| State of the Arts Address Essay by Leonard J. Cirino With the onset of the industrial age in the late 19th century poetry began to become more commonplace, and to lose its musical qualities by the early 20th century. Although several great lyric poets emerged toward the end of the 1800's (among them Gerard Manly Hopkins, William Butler Yeats, and Emily Dickinson), since then there have been fewer and fewer who even attempt to replace them. The reasons for this could be the overall shift of the population centers from the rural to the urban and the ensuing loss of affinity to the natural world; the dehumanization of people in the less rewarding and more physically and emotionally taxing factory work; a homogenization of phrases, idioms, and speech patterns due to the general diaspora of ethnic minorities who used original language related to their specific geographical areas; and, a breakdown of many types of religious ceremonies during which people sang in choirs, and hence, gained, in their early years, the metaphors and rhythms of older hymns. There are only two examples of African-American poets in the early twentieth century that come to mind who were able to write in a Southern Black idiom and still gain recognition. The better known is Langston Hughes, a Harlem Renaissance poet, who, even in his most colloquial verse, spoke eloquently of the inner city. The other was Sterling A. Brown whose reputation has not maintained a following among the literati of the US in the second half of this century, but who is receiving attention in the Black Literature classes in the Universities. Their poetry, in the idioms of their people, is of the most purely melodic and meaningful verse. In more modern times the works of Lucille Clifton and Gwendolyn Brooks are examples of ethnic poets who use speech usually considered out of fashion or in poor taste, but with the true music of their peers. Currently, the poet Patricia A. Smith, who was born in the south side of Chicago, and now resides in Boston, catches many of the contemporary themes of modern Blacks as well as the inflections of the people whose voices she writes in. Also, at the present time, there is Spanish and English mixed in the same poems (called Spanglese). I'm not as familiar with the practitioners of this bilingual verse, but, the book, AKRILICA, by Juan Felipe Herrera, is a fine example of this relatively new form in that his poems are not only musical in both languages, but also because he has important things to say about the world of Hispanics and the culture of the nortes. To reach even further into my position, without much foundation except a general skepticism, it seems that much recent North American poetry has not only lost its musical qualities, but it has devolved into an aesthetic of simplicity and quick takes -- because most of my generation was, at an early age, under the influence of TV. To make it worse, now there is an entire generation of young poets who were raised on computers and narcissism. Leading the way for these poets are the deconstructionists who have tried to destroy language, and their ensuing poetic counterparts, the L*A*N*G*U*A*G*E school, both of whom have decided to market the notion of language in a material way after the manner of a horribly distorted view of Derrida's aesthetics. Along with them, but in an opposing simplistic poetics, goes the sentimentality of the Iowa School of Poets who has been described by one critic as the "Doily School". In my opinion these so-called poets are responsible for the loss of idiomatic speech, originality of thought, and the corruption of poetry into sound bytes. They don't speak with intelligence or originality, but only mouth confusion. It's as if the corporate mentality of buy and sell has somehow replaced the world of art with dishonesty. The fact that many academics (such as Jorie Graham and others) have become purveyors of these ideas, is not only appalling, but reminds me of a mass hysteria to join the crowd, to be a part of this debasing force simply because it is modern or trendy. One thing is sure, these schools have a total disregard for beauty, not to mention common sense. Perhaps this is a reaction to the uglification of the world and its universal dangers. As an editor, I receive at least 15 manuscripts a year from obscure and unpublished (in book form) poets who are worthy of a much wider audience. And generally, on reading the prize and award winning books of the year, including both the academics and the street poets, in most cases I find very little of any aesthetic value and an even greater lack of dimension to the writers' thinking, much less the ability to communicate beyond a meager substance. The state of the Union of poetry has come under close scrutiny in past years and most critics complain about the workshop poem. I agree, but also believe it has as much to do with the lack of roots of poets in particular and the population in general, as well as the mass confusion and violence in the world today, which leads people to undervalue a true voice and in many cases not even be able to hear one because of the fast-food like commodity poetry has become. Unless a poet has that rare youthful genius like Rimbaud or Baudelaire, or maybe even W.S. Merwin if he is to be given adequate consideration, it takes dozens of adult years to study, refine, and put to practice the art of poetry. I'm not speaking of the anemic, talky academic (lack of) work, or the in your face poems that make up a great portion of what I read in today's chapbooks and 'zines. I am talking about poets who have seriously considered the centuries of previous work, both in their own language and translation, and who use this work as a stepping stone to modern art that is still universal in quality. It is not a task one learns in a year or five: it is a life-long discipline. Today's poets who espouse so much of Ezra Pound should go back and digest his ABC of Reading. I have become tired of the glossy and highly touted books of the universities, and presses like Graywolf or Copper Canyon, as well as the whole slimy and self-centered 'zine scene poets. I'm not even sure I want to read more contemporary work from the United States. My choice today is to return to the Asian classics, the Greeks and Latins, troubadours like Villon, and many of the early to mid-twentieth century southern and eastern European poets. Even though I read these only in translation they speak to me in more qualitative and musical ways than almost anything written in the US today does does. It is a sad state in my artistic life when I have to return to poets of the past rather than choose something contemporary, but it has become more and more often true. Published in Home Planet News and Unwound. HOME PAGE & ARCHIVES
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