The monstrosity of the long poem

Abstract

Writing ‘long’ poems in an age that has a capacious appetite for the image, a diminished attention span and a desire for the quick sound bite might seem counterintuitive, if not spectacularly naive. Turn to the guidelines of any poetry competition and you will find (more often than not) the restrictor ‘judges will accept entries of poems of up to 40 lines’. Short poems valiantly secure a space for poetry in public spaces; Poems on the Underground, Metro, BART and DART offer a welcome imaginative respite to any traveller. But the poetry world is not full of master haiku writers, Zen brevity can quickly become anticipated Zen epiphany as the commuter minds the gap. Thankfully an alternate vein of poetry displays a need to challenge the perceived aesthetics of what is marketable or desirable. This is not to argue that this poetry operates somehow outside of culture. But the way poetry can respond to, incorporate or assimilate the world often aims to challenge market expectations and revive expectations. Writing ‘long’ poems in an age that has a capacious appetite for the image, a diminished attention span and a desire for the quick sound bite might seem counterintuitive, if not spectacularly naive. Turn to the guidelines of any poetry competition and you will find (more often than not) the restrictor ‘judges will accept entries of poems of up to 40 lines’. Short poems valiantly secure a space for poetry in public spaces; Poems on the Underground, Metro, BART and DART offer a welcome imaginative respite to any traveller. But the poetry world is not full of master haiku writers, Zen brevity can quickly become anticipated Zen epiphany as the commuter minds the gap. Thankfully an alternate vein of poetry displays a need to challenge the perceived aesthetics of what is marketable or desirable. This is not to argue that this poetry operates somehow outside of culture. But the way poetry can respond to, incorporate or assimilate the world often aims to challenge market expectations and revive expectations.