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From: will.dockery@gmail.com (W.Dockery)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems,alt.arts.poetry.comments
Subject: Re: Resurrecting Poetry
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 2024 09:28:34 +0000
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Ilya Shambat wrote:
>
> There are many people who have no value for poetry, even some who see it
> as pathological. Someone wrote on the Internet that poetry is not a
> cure-all for low self-esteem. In my case it has nothing to do with my
> self-esteem at all. I started writing poetry when I was 10 and was
> recognized for it. And I did this in Russia, where poetry was a big
> thing.
>
> There are many who claim that poetry is useless or impractical. I see
> three very useful and highly practical applications for poetry.
>
> One is that it can allow people to express what they feel or think about
> someone they care about, and as such can help to improve families,
> relationships and friendships.
>
> Another is that it can allow people to articulate and work through their
> feelings and their thoughts.
>
> And probably the most important one is that it can communicate one's
> understanding and realizations to other people and thus help all sorts
> of people in all sorts of ways.
>
> Finally, in case of a good poem, you have produced something beautiful –
> something as such that adds to the civilization and the world.
>
> In my life poetry has been far from useless. In my life poetry has been
> the saving grace. It is the reason that I was admitted on a full
> scholarship to an elite private school in Virginia. It is the reason I
> have most of my friends. It is the reason I've been with women who were
> extremely attractive both physically and personally when I am neither.
> There have been any number of people who have attacked me, frequently
> very viciously; but there are any number of others who love my poetry
> and my translations.
>
> Another common slander against poetry is that it is reflection of mental
> illness. Of this there are two claims: Either that it comes from
> personality disorders (such as “sociopathic” or “narcissistic”) and that
> it comes from chemical disorders such as bipolar or schizophrenia.
>
> The first is not hard at all to refute. In many places such as France,
> Russia and Italy, poetry is widely read and highly regarded by normal
> people, which would not be the case if it was limited to people with
> personality disorders. Poetry was highly respected in World War II
> generation, which unlike baby boomers has never been accused of any
> disorders at all. If someone is a sociopath and does not have emotions,
> he would not be attracted to a pursuit that extols feelings; he would be
> much more likely to become a businessman or a lawyer. As for
> narcissistic disorder, it would pathologize everyone from Gates and
> Rockefeller in business to Trump and Clinton in politics.. There may be
> narcissists in poetry; but I do not see why there would be more
> narcissists in poetry than in business, politics, media, academia or
> law.
>
> In case of disorders such as epilepsy, bipolar and schizophrenia, poetry
> may actually be a way to make something good out of a bad situation. In
> epilepsy there is heightened contact between right brain and left brain,
> which makes available for verbal expression intuitive understanding.
> That can be very useful for creative pursuits, and Dostoyevsky, who was
> an epileptic, produced some of the greatest literature in history,
> writing his greatest work during his epileptic fits. In bipolar and
> schizophrenia, there are available for conscious use the parts of the
> brain that are not normally accessed.. This can likewise be very useful
> for creativity; and people with these disorders can achieve naturally
> the kinds of states that people in 1960s attempted to achieve with LSD.
>
> Another claim that I've heard – this time from an editor in DC – is that
> the reason that poetry has become big in Russia is long winters. I have
> news for this person. Poetry is big in place like Lebanon and Greece
> that do not have long winters. There have been excellent poets coming
> from warm zones such as Iran, Mexico and Chile. Many of the better poets
> in America are black.
>
> Then there is the claim that poetry is unrealistic. The response to that
> is that human world is what people make it, and something becomes
> realistic when people make it so. If there is greater demand for poetry
> and for arts in general, then more people who are willing to supply such
> things will be able to make ends meet. The solution is to stimulate the
> demand by getting more people to value these things. There is nothing
> unrealistic about this; it has taken place in the past even in the
> American history, and there is no reason why it cannot happen now.
>
> I want poetry to become as big a thing in the English-speaking world as
> it is in Russia. There have been any number of excellent
> English-speaking poets in the past. Probably the biggest problem has
> been that poetry self-destructed. It was turned into cold cynical
> abominations called post-modernism and avant-garde. When I took a
> magnificent visual artist named Julia to attend an avant-garde poetry
> reading in DC, she said, “This is not poetry.” On the Internet group
> rec.arts.poems, I found the least poetic mentality of anywhere I have
> been. These people not only produced absolute rubbish, but they were
> absolutely vicious toward people whose poetry actually was poetry.
>
> The best way to make poetry a big thing in the English-speaking world is
> to produce real poetry. Poetry that aims for – and achieves – things
> such as beauty and passion. It is to leave in the dust the post-modern
> and avant-garde gibberish and to produce something beautiful. People in
> Russia read poetry that is being produced in Russia. Using similar
> styles to produce poetry in English should create poetry in English that
> people actually want to read.
>
> I can do the contemporary styles as well. For the most part, I choose
> not to. Julia told me also after the reading, “I hope you never write
> this way.” She was able to do excellent abstract art, but she preferred
> for her work to reflect classical sensibilities. I took the themes in
> her art and turned it into poetry. The result was a book
> (https://www.amazon.com/Poems-Julia-Mr-Ilya-Shambat/dp/150234369X) that
> made me – and her – the talk of DC poetry scene.
>
> I want to resurrect poetry. And that means clearing away both the
> misconceptions about poetry and the post-modern and avant-garde nonsense
> and producing poetry that aims for – and achieves – beauty and passion..
>
> Things that poetry is meant to be about, and things that have been
> present in poetry that people actually want to read.

Good read