Pushing the Boundaries

Yesterday I was in the studio recording a series of short radio shows in my Poets Corner slot for CrossRhythms Radio. The show is divided into two short sections with a music track played in between. In the first section I provide some background and context for my poem choice, and in the second section I perform the poem. It's simple but effective and the shows go out every weekday afternoon. 

In one of my shows yesterday I talked about experimental poetry and told the story of how I became interested, and then inspired by avant garde poets and writers. Here's the story again for those many of you who will never get the chance to listen to the show.

I was in my late teens, and had been writing poetry for a short while during my school years. Now in my first job at a local college, I was seconded for a week or so to work in the college library. It was quite a large library in several floors, and the book stacks were huge. One of my tasks was to preserve some of the paper back books by removing their covers, and then rebinding them in hard covers, with the original paper outers incorporated into the new cover. It was fun, although fiddly, and I always managed to get my fingers covered in glue. 

During this time, the library was disposing of many of its old stocks of books. These included poetry and other literature. I spotted a pile of old poetry books and asked one of the library staff what was happening to them. She replied that they were being thrown out, and that if I wanted any I should just take them. I carried a boxful home with me, and I still have most of them in my collection. 

Some that caught my eye included works by e. e. cummings, Charles Bukowski and Philip Lamantia. These great American poets wrote amazing out-of-left field poetry that left me gasping for breath. I never knew that the English language could be manipulated in such inventive ways! Then I read the work of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, who created vast lyrical landscapes of metaphors, similes and wordplay that inspired me even more.  

Soon I began to write in similar ways, not in blind slavish copying, but through experimentation and trial and error. I began to perform my new experimental poetry live, and got more positive responses more than I did negative ones (you'll always get both). I'm now at the point in my poetry life where I feel I can push the boundaries continually to try to find new ways of experessing myself and new ways of manipulating the English language to create new wordscapes. 

My interactive textbook Creative Deviance and more recently my poetry collection eXp exemplify this creative risk taking and showcase what I have found to be possible. I hope in time these books will inspire poets to push their own boundaries just as cummings et al inspire me to push my own.

Steve Wheeler

Photo (c) Wheelsong Books Ltd

SPECIAL OFFER: If you purchase a copy of Creative Deviance directly from Wheelsong Books: wheelsong6@gmail.com you will also receive a copy of eXp absolutely free. 

Seriously funny

A few remarks on my blog post from yesterday got me thinking. It seems that some poets believe they cannot be taken seriously if they write comedic material. Yes, there are those who specialise in dark and moody poetry. Many do it very well. Some though may feel rather depressed reading it, while others are uplifted by sorrowful poetry. Perhaps these are thinking, I'm glad that's not me! But generally, dark and mournful poetry tends to bring the mood down a little. 

So what about lighthearted poetry? Poetry that is comedic, absurd and even flippant? How does that make us feel, and are we still taking it seriously if we are laughing and giggling? 

Yes, very much so, otherwise, why would we be spending time reading it? Some poetry can be funny and serious at the same time. Poetry about a serious subject that has a comedic twist has impact.

Humorous poetry can be uplifting, improve our mood and perhaps it even inspire us to write our own comedy poems. I can think of many poets (some are even in my online groups) who write seriously funny poetry. One of course, is our own Graeme Stokes. His poetry is cheeky, often very droll, and sometimes contains sledgehammer wit, all wrapped up in incisive social commentary. Go and check out his Wheelsong Books collection Off the Top of My Head to appreciate what I'm saying.

Some of my favourite humorous poets include John Cooper Clarke, Roger McGough and Brian Bilston. I have collections by all three on my bookshelf, because although each is unique in his style, they all have the same effect on me - I laugh out loud, I shake my head at the brilliance of their wit and humour and I feel inspired to create something similar. Personally I like to bridge the gap and write poetry from a dark or dry humour perspective. 

Have you ever broken out of the mould of sorrowful and mournful poetry and tried to write humorous verse? Have a go and see if you can. You might be pleasantly surprised. That would be funny wouldn't it?

Steve Wheeler

Photo from Flicker used under a Creative Commons licence

Are you being taken seriously?

This is an opinion piece, and I anticipate a bit of flak from some people, but I write this post from a position as an editor, publisher and owner/founder of four successful online poetry groups. And do bear in mind, this piece has been written to try to help poets improve their chances of being noticed and possibly even published in due course. 

Please comment in the box below if you want dialogue on this subject. I'm very happy to reply to serious questions and comments. 

How can you be taken seriously as a poet? Firstly there will be some who might reply that they don't really care whether they are taken seriously or not. But I suspect that most people who write poetry want their work to be taken seriously. At the minimum, most poets would rather not be ignored. And yet that is exactly what I see happening in my online poetry groups. Poeple post poetry that is ignored by most. Or it is poetry that fails to get accepted for anthologies or other publications. 

Pen Names. Firstly, writing under your own name, or at least a pen-name that is not ridiculous is an absolute requirement. How you represent yourself is very important, Those who use contrived pen-names, or noms de plume that are jokey do not generally have their work taken seriously. At Wheelsong Books our editors tend to ignore those who we can't take seriously, and the first impression - the name of the poet - is important in setting the atmosphere for any review. 

Emojis. Secondly, the use of emojis and other embellishment in a poem is often a turn-off to a reviewer or reader. The question must be asked: why does the poet use lots of smileys, hearts, and other emoticons in their work? Is it because they lack any confidence in their own writing? It is certainly a distracting feature, and as an editor/reviewer I tend to ignore poems with an overload of emojis. 

Upper case lettering. Thirdly, poetry that is presented totally in upper case lettering seems amateurish. In old money, upper case lettering was considered shouting in text and social media cultures. In poetry, the overuse of upper case lettering makes it appear as though the writer is desperate to be noticed, and again, they lack confidence that their writing alone will keep the attention.

Be original. Fourthly, if you wish to be taken seriously as a poet, make sure your work is original. There is nothing worse in poetry than reading old, jaded phrases that others have used before. The forced rhyme or the predictable line is a clear indication that the poet is struggling to express themselves and maybe has lost their way.

AI Generated poetry. Finally, as an addendum to the last point, you won't be taken seriously (and may even be sanctioned) if you persist in submitting or posting poetry that has been generated by artificial intelligence. You would be surprised by how many posts each day we reject from our online poetry groups. You might also be horrified at the number of people we ban from the group if they persist in this practice. It's dishonest and might even be breaking copyright laws.

So there you have it. Five key points to remember if you wish to be taken seriously as a poet. I believe most of these apply to online poetry groups worldwide, and definitely apply in the publishing world.

Steve Wheeler 

Photo from Wikimedia Commons