Essay Review: Are Poetry Boards Good For Poetry, The antithesis of 'What do poets enjoy most at MM' Options

[Cleo_Serapis]

Hello all,

Rus from the IBPC has put forth a new email loop and link even as some of our members are still researching the first, "What do poets enjoy the most about your forums" at the link below.
What do our poets enjoy the most at MM?

In this new thread, we'll look at an antithesis to that one. Click into this article carried by an E-zine:
The Pee in the Pool of On Line Poetry, by Terreson

This article focuses on the questions posed at its start: Are poetry boards good for poetry?

Do the boards benefit poets, the new and inexperienced especially who, in most cases, are grappling with the vital stuff of finding an authentic voice, gaining confidence in themselves, working through the canon, trying to figure out if they have something essential to say, and all at the same time? Do the boards, viewed as communities, engender poetry whose language is also authentic or do they falsify the poetry experience? Another question comes to mind. Is even the notion of an online poetry community good for poetry? And maybe one last question. What impact on poets, and on poetry itself, do the parameters, the rules of conduct and the by-laws, of many boards have?

As we all strive to build a knowledge base of what makes a poetry forum work best for the poets who sign into our forums, let's also examine what we do that is not working.

Please share your own thoughts here.

I, for one, hesitated on posting this thread, but do agree with some of what the essay alludes to; SOME, not all as you'll soon read for yourself.

Cheers,
~Cleo

[Guest_Terreson_*]

Well, thank you Lori. Both for the welcome and especially for actually bothering to take on the essay, point by point. In the eight days since it got posted you are the first to do so. Some have riffed on the piece, and thoughtfully so, but by and large the response, both on Clattery's blog and on several boards, has been the personal attack. Often by board moderators. Good thing I am thick skinned. On second thought, that I entertain a certain strength of conviction concerning what the essay has to say has also helped.

You ask a good question, wanting to know what incited the article. Specifically, you ask for data. By data I read specifics, which then puts us in the arena of anecdotal information. For pay I work with scientists and they have taught me a big thing. Data never stands on its own, always being subject to interpretation. And even bar graphs can be tweeked to show any statistical bias one wants. So as appealing as it might seem to give out the data I am not sure it would do much good by way of offering evidence. In brief, what incited the article was the experience of almost ten years of online poetry involvement, several of which years being spent as a board moderator, a chat room host, and as sometime mentor and lecturer. I came to the poetry boards pretty wide eyed, like a proverbial kid in the proverbial candy shop. What I have seen since, and on both sides of the mod/member divide, has rather unsettled me. Let me put it this way. I know a beekeeper who, as beekeepers tend to be, is completely devoted to his husbandries. He has been at the art for maybe thirty years. On the topic of modern beekeeping practices, what amounts to factory farming, I once heard him say in exhaustion, "How can you take something so beautiful and turn it to so much s**t?" In just such a frame of mind I wrote my essay.

Having said as much, if you link back to Clattery's blog, scroll down deep into the ensueing conversation you come to where I posit the kind of ideal, free-range environment I figure a poetry board can be. My model is, always has been, the kind of Tuesday night sessions the poet Mallarme held at his home in late 19th C Paris. I also mention Charles Olson and the Black Mountain folk who worked in loose association, working out a certain set of aesthetics. So I haven't given up on the idea. And, of course, all ideals are limited by the fact they are ideals. On the other hand, viewed as models, I think they have value. I'll stick to mine.

Thanks again for the welcome and for the conversation. I've read what you have to say, much of which makes sense. The spirit of all of which comes across in the friendly way. And, yes, before posting poetry and commenting on the same by the others, I will follow standard operating procedures and read the guidelines.

Tere