On poetry as a pastime

[Denis Joe]

This is an article that is being put forward for publishing to promote National Poetry Day in the UK on 7th October. It ties in, somewhat, with the poet as polemicist issue that arose out of emuse's The Art Of Stoning on the experience poetry thread:


Once again National Poetry Day is upon us and poetry groups up and down the country will be busying themselves: organising events; enthusing people and Individuals will be standing in front of the mirror ensuring that if their vocal delivery of their poem fails at least they will look good.

Poetry of one sort or another is never far away from our daily lives. Whether it’s helping to advertise burgers or Roger McGough celebrating the opening of the new M&S in town or a poem in The Echo, it’s there, insinuating itself into our lives, whether we want it or not. And yet poetry as an art has never attracted that wide an audience in this country. It’s often said that the audience for a poetry reading will be mainly made up of other poets and indeed one of the most controversial poems of the 20th century, Allen Ginsberg’s Howl , caused a worldwide sensation after it had been first read out in a little gallery in San Francisco, October 7, 1955, even though the audience numbered less than 50 - most of whom were poets, writers and artist friends of Ginsberg.

The impact of Howl can still be felt today. At open - mic events you will hear poets reading their work. Sometime these are in poetic forms and are mainly lyrical but you also find, mainly younger people, reading out more aggressive work known as Rants. Rants have a tendency to be delivered at a fast pace and have a rhetorical theme to them. Usually the theme will be having a pop at Government or people who eat burgers, drink alcohol or shop at Primark (although the rant poets generally look as though their wardrobe came off the rack of their local charity shop). The Rant can trace its poetic roots back to the Beat generation of 1950s America and Howl, which some saw as a ‘call to arms’ at the time, which suggested that there was an alternative to the paranoid - ridden society of the USA at the threshold of the Cold War. Unlike Ginsberg however, many of the rants you hear today sound like whining about people who are not like the poets (eg: ‘Chavs’ and ‘Scallies’) and are a product of a society that has nothing to say about itself and feels at ease about telling other people how they should be living their lives . Indeed what is so remarkable about rant is how conservative it is: sounding like a noisy propaganda from a government department than anything original.

Sadly there is also a snobbish tendency within some poetry circles to sneer at what has become known as ‘Echo poems’ These are simply ballad-type poems that many people write for pleasure and will sometimes find their way into print via The Liverpool Echo.

There are many similarities between rants and Echo poems; not least their non-academic approach. Both forms rely heavily on rhyme and rhythm and both tend to be strong on emotion; aiming themselves at a particular audience, meaning that they are ‘preaching to the converted’. The major difference between the two approaches to poetry is that Rant generally has a negative feel to it, whereby the ballad type poems, which people write for fun, have a celebratory feel to them.

National Poetry Day offers audiences a chance to experience many different approaches to poetry and provides a platform for amateurs and professionals; serious poets and those who write poetry for their own pleasure. It also offers members of the public an opportunity to discover an art form they may never have noticed before


'scallies' is a Liverpool expression and 'chavs' is a British expression for the same thing: young (mainly white) males from the more deprived areas (some use the term 'underclass')

[Ros]

Is this an article you've written, Denis?

I can't really see the article attracting anyone to poetry. It seems a pity to me that it concentrates mostly on rants and Echo poems (are these only known in Liverpool? I've never heard of it, either as a good thing or being criticised, and I know a lot of poets). What about all the other small poetry groups, of which there are loads, and the stuff they produce? It's not a very positive or welcoming article.

Ros

[Sharra]

'chavs' doesn't mean just males afaik

[ray miller]

Can't speak for Liverpool, of course, but I've been to a few open mics and slams around the Birmingham area and haven't come across many Rants and I'm not exactly sure what you mean by Echo poems. I suspect I may have written a few myself. Aiming at a particular audience is akin to preaching to the converted? I don't know that that follows at all, my experience at poetry gigs is that you're either just grateful for any audience at all or you hope that the glasses are plastic.
"serious poets and those who write for their own pleasure". Might they not be the same?

[Denis Joe]

The Echo poetry is a parochial expression but I think that I have alluded to the fact that the 'Echo' refers to the local newspaper, The Liverpool Echo. The poems that they print are emotional or humorous or both and intend to on the empathy of the reader. In my work with North End Writers I have met a few of the people that write this sort of poetry and they make no apologies for the fact that it is written for fun rather than being a serious approach as poetry. The works are, in the main, spontaneous and they say what the writer wants to say.

I am surprised that you haven't come across rants Ros, as they are incredibly popular. I find them a little tedious on the whole as they just seem to melodramatic, sometimes to the point of hysteria.

I guess that the article is aimed at a local audience. Some in Liverpool seem to think that it will one day become a Socialist republic. The politics of Labourism are pretty much the norm in Liverpool, particularly for the more middle-class types who find rants and other rhetorical poetry appealing. I think rants would have more relevance if politics was more than just a mechanical process starved of the fuel of an ideology.

This is an article, the intent is to spark off a debate. It hasn't been published as yet.

Sharra, you are right about the term 'Chavs' Sorry if I gave the wrong impression

[gavin]

i know rants are a mop used to clean up after a discharge of a cannon, or after a mad display of estrogen and oestrogen gavin