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Notes on Bad Poetry single work   essay  
Issue Details: First known date: 2023... 2023 Notes on Bad Poetry
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'Maybe we’ll always disagree about poetry – about how it works, and what it’s for; about its modalities and affordances; about what makes a good poem; about why you might want to write or read one. For as long as anyone can remember, the poetry scene has been characterised by clashing opinions. In this bewildering proliferation of disagreements, the sheer existence of bad poems offers a rare point of consensus. For as we all know, bad poems exist. I’ve read them. You’ve read them. Some of us might even have written a few. And we can all agree they suck. That there are bad poems is a critical fact so empirically incontestable as to verge on the axiomatic. It is as if, in our efforts to come to grips with poetry, we have here – at last! – touched on something irrefragable, recalcitrant, certain.' (Introduction)

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Cordite Poetry Review Pop no. 110 1 September 2023 26770189 2023 periodical issue poetry 'Welcome to the POP! edition of Cordite Poetry Review, in which Gatsby’s green light hovers over this text to tell you we are °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø σηℓιηє °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø, baybee. As pop connoisseurs, we already had a sense of where our tastes diverge. (Bec, in Zen’s words, listens almost exclusively to gay club hits of the ’90s, huge soppy ballads and whatever the soundtrack is this week on Grey’s Anatomy. In Bec’s words, Zen’s diet is androgynous sad-girl belters, cult documentaries and Star Trek by way of Star Trek podcasts.) But we were surprised that our survey of submissions from nearly 400 poets resulted in zero marital barneys; generally, we agreed, and the shape of POP! came together as easily as the Babadook became queer culture.' ( Rebecca Jessen and Zenobia Frost : Editorial introduction) 2023

Works about this Work

The Linguistic Playground of Poetics : L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry and Systemic Functional Linguistics Raelke Grimmer , 2024 single work essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 111 2024;

'I wasn’t entirely prepared for the Canberran rain and cold. Late November, ostensibly summer, and my last trip to the capital at the same time of year almost a decade earlier had shocked me with a week of perfect blue-skied thirty-degree days. Naively, I’d expected the same this time around. I’d packed a raincoat but no umbrella; still, I preferred to turn my hood up against the showers as I trekked through the centre to the bus stop. I sheltered under the canopy and boarded a bus Google reassured would take me to my destination. My memory of this same journey years ago was sketchy, and this city looked different shrouded in grey. My recall sharpened as I alighted and walked through the University of Canberra’s campus, searching for the lecture theatre that would host the opening keynote of this year’s Australasian Association of Writing Programs conference.' (Introduction)

The Linguistic Playground of Poetics : L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Poetry and Systemic Functional Linguistics Raelke Grimmer , 2024 single work essay
— Appears in: Cordite Poetry Review , 1 February no. 111 2024;

'I wasn’t entirely prepared for the Canberran rain and cold. Late November, ostensibly summer, and my last trip to the capital at the same time of year almost a decade earlier had shocked me with a week of perfect blue-skied thirty-degree days. Naively, I’d expected the same this time around. I’d packed a raincoat but no umbrella; still, I preferred to turn my hood up against the showers as I trekked through the centre to the bus stop. I sheltered under the canopy and boarded a bus Google reassured would take me to my destination. My memory of this same journey years ago was sketchy, and this city looked different shrouded in grey. My recall sharpened as I alighted and walked through the University of Canberra’s campus, searching for the lecture theatre that would host the opening keynote of this year’s Australasian Association of Writing Programs conference.' (Introduction)

Last amended 1 Sep 2023 12:37:20
http://cordite.org.au/essays/notes-on-bad-poetry/ Notes on Bad Poetrysmall AustLit logo Cordite Poetry Review
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