Poetry magazine (USA) for January 2009 has the usual mix of interesting poetry, comment and letters. One of the letters is from a poetry study group in a retirement community in Houston, Texas. They complain that they cannot make head or tail out of the poems in the magazine." They maintain that the poems are "only phrases, snatches of words or thoughts in random order, with very little cohesion" and are neither enjoyable nor enlightening.
To their credit Poetry did not ignore the letter. In the first place they printed the letter but also contacted the group and arranged a discussion with a representative of the group on the poems in the January issue. This discussion is broadcast on the magazine podcast available on the magazine website. I wonder if Poetry Ireland Review gets letters like that.
Hi Michael, that's an interesting question. Why don't you ask them and see what they say?
ReplyDeletealso I wonder how many poetry study groups there are in Ireland?
I haven't heard of many poetry study groups here, none in fact. It is often said and appears to be true seems that many more people write poetry than read poetry.
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