The War of the Poets

Via the New York Times, this link to a fun contest that pits two poets 'against' each other (well, not really, but you know), giving them an inspiration for a poem and 15 minutes to write the poem in. Good stuff. Aristophanes would have been so proud.

The inspiration for the first contest was Elizabeth Bishop's paragraph about how poetry is an unnatural act. You can read the final poems on the contest's website. I thought Moss's version was interesting, but Muldoon's was crap (it wasn't a bad poem, exactly, it just had almost nothing to do with the inspiration).

Never one to give up on a challenge, I figured I'd try my hand at it too - obviously, I have no way of proving that I wrote this in 15 minutes, so you'll just have to take my word for it*.

Poetry is an unnatural act

Like sodomy.

Both impress by inflicting pain.
Both are concerned with the penetration of life,
With the forcing of one's emotions
Onto something external -
Whether page or ass.

Both are acts of desperation
Perpetuated by aging, lonely men
Hungry for love
Who seek innocence by betraying it,
Achieving climax in another's tears.

Both are misunderstood.

* To be honest, it was probably more like 16 and a half, but I'm giving myself a little leeway for the fact that I was in the middle of lunch when I started thinking about the 'topic', and it was only some five minutes later that I thought - hey! maybe I should try this. So the actual writing of the thing probably took about 10.

Categories: Poetry, CurrentAffairs