10 Things about Poetry

Even the great Michael Donaghy issued a list of axioms or advice about poetry. And he was probably the best among many recent lesser lights who thought that advice was necessary, who thought that wisdom was possible, who seemed to have this sub-conscious need for 'rules'.
Have we really come this far and yet still feel we need a rubric. Isn't poetry, among all other things, the thing that is always in rebellion, even against itself.
How many times have you read a review or blurb that claims that this poet is the one that is different to all the others. All the time, isn't it, all the time. Who are all those others that are all the same. I've never seen a critique of any poet that said they were just like all the others. I'd love to be the poet who is just like all the others, but only the good ones.
One would love it, wouldn't one, if poetry was a world without manifestos. And yet, in such a small world, it seems to have as many of them as it has participants. It might even have more, if it could.
So, you either take part or you don't. Let's see if we can make it to the recognized number of ten 'things about poetry'. It hasn't taken me long to retrieve this much from a few decades of prejudice and side-taking. The worst thing about it is that I think they're probably right whereas I know on a profounder level that 'if it feels good, do it' ought to be the only maxim.

So,

The only thing that doesn’t change is the avant garde. It is the same now as it was in the 1960’s and 70’s. It might contribute to the mainstream, which develops all the time, but it is only a minor tributary.

The teaching of Creative Writing is dubious at best. A proper poet will teach themselves from their own chosen predecessors or exemplars.

The language is already there. The poet must use it to effect rather than assume it does the job for them.

Poetry in translation is, sadly, a lost cause.

Poetry is not by definition a good thing. In fact, in many hands, it’s a much worse thing than it thinks it is.

Poems on the page are fine but are enhanced exponentially by hearing them read aloud, preferably by the author even if they are not a good reader.

Form doesn’t mean ‘sonnet’, ‘villanelle’ or ‘rhyming couplets’. A poem can take any form it cares to but it will be a bad poem if it can establish no form at all.

A poem succeeds or fails on its own terms but is less likely to succeed if it doesn’t aspire to the condition of music.

If its author isn’t thrilled by a poem, it is unreasonable for it to expect anybody else to be.

Every poet inevitably thinks that their poems are special. But that’s unlikely. Most poems are a bit like other poems. There’s nothing wrong with that but it’s best to be aware of it. We are not all Seamus Heaney.