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Feb 8, 2015

On reviewing poetry

shot_1423012846770 I have been struggling a little on reviewing poetry.  Part of this stems from expectations and examples.  A good proportion of the poetry reviews written in Australia are formal, multi page essays that do a fine job of interrogating the text, placing it in its context etc.  They are great and at times even enjoyable for what they are; which is mainly very educated and well read poets talking to other educated and well read poets. 

I find them less helpful in helping me choose who I might like to read. I am willing to suggest that there’s a good segment of the community (and I’m not talking about the wider non poetry reading community here either) that are in the same boat.

To write reviews of the calibre of a university paper is too much of a drain on my resources.  I’d rather spend time writing poetry than reading enough poetry to be confident in critiquing it. 

Note, this is not an argument against reading poetry, more not reading poetry that I have limited interest in or understanding of.   I expect to grow as a poet but I want that growth to happen as a result of a concerted effort at writing as well as reading.

What I want to do as a reviewer of poetry is to share good poetry (or poetry I like) with other people who don’t necessarily read it.  I think there are potential readers (and writers) or poetry who are lost because the entrance exam is too high (be this real or imagined).

The first modern/contemporary poetry book that I bought came not as the result of a long essay on its merits and comparing it to the rest of the field but from a blog and a link to the poet performing on YouTube.

I want to be able to give the reader of this blog in under 500 words a good sense of the poet’s work and why I think they should read them.  My greatest aim would be to grab a non poetry reader and get them reading poetry for life and a stretch goal would be to get them to start writing poetry.

To that end I am interested in suggestions for what you might think makes for a good review of poetry aimed at the non poet. 


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Comments (4)

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Hmmm interesting dilemma. I guess if you mention the style, the language, the "beats", subject matter, and how accessible it is it may help non-readers or occasional readers determine if it's for them?
1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
You are not alone with this dilemma regarding reviewing poetry. I rarely have trouble writing book reviews but even though publishers sometimes send me poetry collections for review I find it too difficult to do, for the reasons you've given. It's too far out of my comfort zone: I don't have the skills or the background knowledge to do it well enough.
And similarly, I find it hard to discover poetry I might like. One favourite place that I stumbled on is the blog of Celestine at https://readinpleasure.wordpress.com/ where every visit offers solace; insights; and admiration for her craft. But I wouldn't know where to begin if I were asked to review a collection of her haiku...
My recent post Sensational Snippets: Loving Daughters, by Olga Masters
1 reply · active 526 weeks ago
The most success I have had with fidning poetry I like has been listening to poets perform and or borrowing lots of poetry from the SA library system and conducting a no financial risk read :D .

Strangely enough I do think I could review a haiku collection. :D

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