If you've been in one of my poetry workshops before, you may be familiar with my working hypothesis on poems in general: There's two (2) basic kinds, POEMS THAT MAKE SENSE and POEMS THAT DON'T MAKE SENSE.
Oversimple? Sure.
True? Yeah. A lot of oversimple things are.
It's important to keep in mind that I use these rubrics as descriptions. There's no value judgment attached. I've written both kinds. I like to read both kinds. Both kinds are difficult to do well. Both kinds have long, venerated, and multicultural histories. One's not better than the other, at least as far as I'm concerned. (Others disagree, sometimes with great vigor.)
On Day Two (2) or thereabouts, we'll talk more about what I mean. But just to get you started, here are two examples.
A POEM THAT MAKES SENSE: "Domestic Work, 1937" by Natasha Trethewey.
A POEM THAT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE: "The Circle and the Circle's Argument" by Tomaž Šalamun.
What do you notice?
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