{"id":2267,"date":"2012-04-19T10:21:31","date_gmt":"2012-04-19T10:21:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=2267"},"modified":"2012-04-19T10:28:28","modified_gmt":"2012-04-19T10:28:28","slug":"some-thoughts-on-poetry-from-peter-daniels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/some-thoughts-on-poetry-from-peter-daniels\/","title":{"rendered":"Some thoughts on poetry from Peter Daniels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Round up the usual precepts: a poetry manifesto<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Poetry is what you can get away with.<\/p>\n

There are rules, and ways to break them. There are boundaries, some breakable, some not.<\/p>\n

The poem means itself inside a space between poet, reader and subject matter. This triangle has flexible sides, but is within the world of shared existence, shared consciousness of a subject, shared language.<\/p>\n

Poems are made of language, and contained in meaning.<\/p>\n

You can break the meaning barrier once historically (Dada), you probably have to break it at least once as an individual, but meaninglessness is worthless in itself.<\/p>\n

The value in ritually breaking the barrier is to remind us it keeps out the chaos.<\/p>\n

Chaos is a dead end as a destination, but you can bring things over from it (Eliot\u2019s \u201craids on the inarticulate\u201d).<\/p>\n

Nurture the reader\u2019s trust, trust the reader\u2019s understanding.<\/p>\n

Poetry depends on being simultaneously opaque and transparent. It can\u2019t be only one or the other. The pebble and the pool.<\/p>\n

The poem exists in real time, during which the ripples are spreading.<\/p>\n

Almost any poem has to be read twice, first for strangeness, second for clarity.<\/p>\n

New formalists and the avant garde are hobbyists, trainspotting rather than travelling.<\/p>\n

Trainspotters are harmless, and can be good for standards: they notice things, though usually only one class of thing.<\/p>\n

Poetry is for noticing things, not only attention-seeking for poets.<\/p>\n

Enjoyment, engagement, awareness.<\/p>\n

Which includes awareness of poetry\u2019s own general uselessness; and exceptions to this.<\/p>\n

Patience, humility, courage.<\/p>\n

Borrowing pictures for poems is laziness: buy tramadol online<\/a> here\u2019s something Rembrandt made earlier. Observe the life he observed and make your own pictures.<\/p>\n

Borrowing music is another laziness. I\u2019m Frank O\u2019Hara and this is what\u2019s on the jukebox in this cool caf\u00e9. Poems make their own music.<\/p>\n

We are many, living in a mass culture, sharing a lot of subject matter. You can\u2019t ban subjects but the value is in the telling. Shared cultural reference isn\u2019t enough to rely on, either.<\/p>\n

Listen to your betters and your peers, and follow your instinct.<\/p>\n

The road of excess is worth taking; also the road less travelled.<\/p>\n

Identity poetry gets boring, but the issues are still live.<\/p>\n

A grudge is probably essential but some grudges are unproductive, especially grudges about poetry.<\/p>\n

Poetry needs reading aloud, because language must have a mouth.<\/p>\n

Poetry needs putting on a page, so you can see it in front of you.<\/p>\n

Reading aloud and publishing poetry should be done well.<\/p>\n

The poem is what matters, not the poet. Poems don\u2019t happen without poets, but good ones may get a life of their own.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Peter Daniels<\/strong> has won several prizes – first prize in the 2010 TLS Poetry Competition, the 2008 Arvon Competition, the 2002 Ledbury competition, and was twice a winner in the Poetry Business pamphlet competition.\u00a0 His publications: pamphlet Mr Luczinski Makes a Move<\/em> (HappenStance, 2011); first full collection Counting Eggs<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(Mulfran) and translations of Vladislav Khodasevich (Angel Books).\u00a0 Find out more here: www.peterdaniels.org.uk<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Round up the usual precepts: a poetry manifesto   Poetry is what you can get away with. There are rules, and ways to break them. There are boundaries, some breakable, some not. The poem means itself inside a space between poet, reader and subject matter. This triangle has flexible sides, but is within the world […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2267"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2275,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2267\/revisions\/2275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}