Boomer Poet
@SeniorImage
Boomer Poet
I came to poetry when poems still had the decency to limp a little. They carried scars, marriages, bills. We wrote about the human condition because we had to inhabit it. Now poetry has become a brightly lit craft store where everyone is encouraged to decorate trauma with glitter and call it transcendence. The old metaphors were evicted, the sonnet is on life support, and somewhere a workshop leader is explaining that punctuation is colonial oppression.
I am a Boomer poet, which means I remember when a poem could be sad without a healing journey. But the century has moved on. Algorithms are writing love poems, Instagram is dispensing wisdom in twelve words or fewer, and the Starpainters are taking over now.
Good. Let them.
I'll be over here, sharpening my pencil and waiting for the stars to come low enough to disappoint me.
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Prosery prompted by DVerse Poets Pub and the words of Gordon Downie, particularly the borrowed ones in bold italics above.
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As a fellow boomer, I am with you on this. If I can''t see the shiny ending, then why do I need to write it.
ReplyDeleteChange is inevitable it seems... even in poetry! Very nicely written. Keep that pencil sharp!
ReplyDelete