So far, we've established that:
I) Poetry is verbatim.
II) Poetry is most often rhythmic.
III) Poetry was subsumed by song in the 20th Century.
IV) Verse is scanned from right to left because lines find their rhythm.
V) Rhymes are crowd-pleasers.
VI) In addition to concision, poetry relies on repetitions of sounds.
VII) Poetry has lost its audience [and readership].
There are more people writing "poetry" now than ever before but no one is listening to [or reading] it.
"So what is the purpose of learning how to write it? To be ignored?"
Mastering the art form's essentials and understanding its mordant status quo allows us to comprehend the challenge: "Other than setting verse to music, how can we manufacture an audience?"
In 1972 the National Football League was still competing against baseball, basketball, and, to stretch the point, golf and hockey for lucrative television contracts. Some commentators came up with an idea: Each would pick players and whichever such group scored the most points that season would win that pundit a prize. By fashioning their own such lists ("leagues") fans could have a stake in the game. This became known as "Fantasy Football". Today, it is the NFL's largest single source of profit and has made it, by far, the most successful sport in America, if not the world.
Thus, "How can we get audiences?" evolves into "How can we get audiences involved in poetry?" Not poets, mind you, but audiences. The public.
This may be the most difficult task in the world. Others have tried and failed to engage people in contemporary verse.
In the 1980s Marc Kelly Smith and some other Chicago poets came up with the idea of poetry competitions called "slams". These had some success because, as we've said, there are many people writing "poetry" today. Unlike Fantasy Football, though, slams never appealed to a broader fandom because virtually no such fans existed. The audience was limited to other poets and their tiny entourages. (In accordance with Earl Gray's 72nd law, experienced participants avoid the term "poetry"; these are merely "slam" or "spoken word" events.)
The Poetry Foundation and National Endowment for the
Arts came up with another good idea: Get teens across the nation to
perform verse. This has had limited success for a number of reasons:
it is expensive, requires a lot of organization, the selected verses
lack performance value, and it underutilizes the Internet.
Poetry Covers
We are all familiar with cover songs.
Find [or write] a poem you feel others will like. Make a video either narrating it [in the background] or performing it, properly attributing it to the author. Post it on social media, calling it "a story", "a perspective", "an account", anything other than "a poem".
"Wait. What about copyright?"
Try to contact the writer for permission. If they are unavailable, proceed. In the very unlikely event that the poet objects to this homage, take it down. Much more likely, the author will be complimented and will thank you for the promotional effort.
Not a performer? Be the camera operator for an actor friend. Or buy a cell phone tripod (for under $20) and be the facilitator. Network.
As an illustration, consider making a recording of this poem with spoken words instead of background music:
Lover's Will
Forget those walks, the turns we took;
those glaring trinkets won't remain:
the warming touch, the neighbour's look,
our way washed clean by autumn rain.
Forget me now, embrace the rest
of this new course, unseen, unsought,
and grant me only this request:
reserve for us your final thought.
Form contests, asking people to submit similar efforts. For example, you could send us the URL after posting your version of "Lover's Will" online. We can list these here and see which rendition our visitors prefer.
Ideally, sponsors would get involved. If not, ally your contest with a favorite local business, cause, or group. To wit, we might say that the "Lover's Will" performance prompt/contest honors the Thailand Restaurant at 617 Selkirk Avenue, whose delicacies sustain me and deserve worldwide recognition. LOL!
Be creative!
