(The poem is by James Tate from his collection, Viper Jazz)
Teaching the Ape to Write Poems
They didn't have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
Read the rest here.
And if you want to read something else that's insightful and amusing, here's an essay by Dana Gioia, who judged the Poetry National Book Award in 1995, the year James Tate won it. He discusses why it took America so long to embrace surrealism, which is the hallmark of Tate's style.
"My own guess for the main reason that American poetry–and painting and sculpture–did not initially pounce on surrealism was that Hollywood got there first. And not just Hollywood–it's worse than that–it was the animated cartoon. [...] To this day the greatest moment of North American surrealism is probably Dumbo's drunken nightmare choreographed to the demonic oom-pah-pah of "Pink Elephants on Parade" from Walt Disney's 1941 movie. When the surrealist style was so quickly assimilated into mass-media comedy, what avant-garde poet could consider it sufficiently chic?"
The rest of that essay is equally entertaining! One reason, I think, is because it was first broadcast on BBC radio. Maybe all those who publish literary criticism or reviews should be required to record their ponderous essays for the radio---and then be forced to listen to themselves. Hmmm....
They didn't have much trouble
teaching the Critic to review poetry....
Poetry Friday is hosted today by Karen Edmisten.
