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The Untended Consequences of the October Contest
When the idea for the October contest was first floated, we all thought it would be a nice break. Personally I had no idea it would present such an apparently divisive forum. Don't get me wrong, I am all for divisiveness, I just prefer it to be intentional.
I have given a lot of thought to why there are so few entries into the October contest and the conclusion at which I have arrived is, shall we say, most probably offensive to some. My thought is that the reason we have so few entries into the October contest is that many people are not interested in critique and since they are not interested in critique they are uncomfortable writing intentionally poorly least it be indistinguishable from their standard fare.
It is my considered opinion that before you can write intentionally poorly you must be willing to admit the possibility that your work can be improved and without that huge creative step, well, folks never realise the difference between their best effort and their worst. Moreover, they are so wedded to the instant emotional style and method that they cannot conceive anything they write as needing modification, no matter what.
And I understand this attitude as I adhered to it myself when I was in my early teens; until I learned better. Art is not just raw emotion, it is skillfully implemented and geared toward provoking a desired response. Art is communication and poetry is art and to create bad art one must first know the difference between good and bad art.
If you've never admitted the possibility that your work can be improved, you do not know what bad art is. Me, I know. I've written 1,000s of bad poems, literally 1,000s. I have from that swamp of festering sewage less than 200 that I consider worthwhile as devices of communication. Some of the rest were self guided therapy, some were failed attempts at ideas, and some just plain sucked.
But hell, I learn new things every day and one of the new things I learned some 30+ years ago was that editing, refining the idea presented to be more clear and effective, is a good thing. It does not invalidate my point merely because I improved it upon reflection.
What stumps me is that people who refuse to grow as poets through critique would probably never attempt to do other skill based activities without practice and refinement. What then makes poetry so poorly thought of that anyone believes they can vomit out words and call it complete?
I wish I knew.
I love poetry, all kinds. Poets are special folks with skills and abilities that rival any other profession but just as I would dismiss a person in the stands who decided one day they were a Quarterback even though their performance was worse than can be imagined, so do I dismiss those who claim to be poets just because they spilled words onto a page.
The quarterback must move and coordinate and pass and run and plan and execute and the poet must do much the same in their mind so that the end result is more than three and out.
We've got 11 days left in this contest, perhaps we'll get another entry or two. If not, no worries as the first test of a contest is entering it.
http://www.neopoet.com/forum/28090-october-contest-now-open
I have given a lot of thought to why there are so few entries into the October contest and the conclusion at which I have arrived is, shall we say, most probably offensive to some. My thought is that the reason we have so few entries into the October contest is that many people are not interested in critique and since they are not interested in critique they are uncomfortable writing intentionally poorly least it be indistinguishable from their standard fare.
It is my considered opinion that before you can write intentionally poorly you must be willing to admit the possibility that your work can be improved and without that huge creative step, well, folks never realise the difference between their best effort and their worst. Moreover, they are so wedded to the instant emotional style and method that they cannot conceive anything they write as needing modification, no matter what.
And I understand this attitude as I adhered to it myself when I was in my early teens; until I learned better. Art is not just raw emotion, it is skillfully implemented and geared toward provoking a desired response. Art is communication and poetry is art and to create bad art one must first know the difference between good and bad art.
If you've never admitted the possibility that your work can be improved, you do not know what bad art is. Me, I know. I've written 1,000s of bad poems, literally 1,000s. I have from that swamp of festering sewage less than 200 that I consider worthwhile as devices of communication. Some of the rest were self guided therapy, some were failed attempts at ideas, and some just plain sucked.
But hell, I learn new things every day and one of the new things I learned some 30+ years ago was that editing, refining the idea presented to be more clear and effective, is a good thing. It does not invalidate my point merely because I improved it upon reflection.
What stumps me is that people who refuse to grow as poets through critique would probably never attempt to do other skill based activities without practice and refinement. What then makes poetry so poorly thought of that anyone believes they can vomit out words and call it complete?
I wish I knew.
I love poetry, all kinds. Poets are special folks with skills and abilities that rival any other profession but just as I would dismiss a person in the stands who decided one day they were a Quarterback even though their performance was worse than can be imagined, so do I dismiss those who claim to be poets just because they spilled words onto a page.
The quarterback must move and coordinate and pass and run and plan and execute and the poet must do much the same in their mind so that the end result is more than three and out.
We've got 11 days left in this contest, perhaps we'll get another entry or two. If not, no worries as the first test of a contest is entering it.
http://www.neopoet.com/forum/28090-october-contest-now-open