tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21677423.post2671280810622486452..comments2024-01-03T20:27:23.695-05:00Comments on <i>ursprache</i>: listen up, peopleJforJameshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17178504373218996278noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21677423.post-87874273055592259672016-07-24T20:45:24.677-04:002016-07-24T20:45:24.677-04:00I hear you. If a person can come out of a MFA prog...I hear you. If a person can come out of a MFA program in Poetry without at least some general recognition of Eliot/Prufrock, you have to wonder about the pedagogy behind the endeavor. No one can be expected to have read everything, as I'm increasingly reminded as I age, but you have to be exposed to certain touch points (I won't say touchstones). Probably more importantly the mentors/teachers should attempt to instill some hunger to explore poetry at large, as a whole, across cultures, and not be content with poetry as I/we happen to write it in these times.<br /> JforJameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17178504373218996278noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21677423.post-26203975671884553982016-07-24T00:38:39.598-04:002016-07-24T00:38:39.598-04:00Youth doesn't have to mean ignorance, but elde...Youth doesn't have to mean ignorance, but elders encourage it.<br /><br />A fellow poet told me the other day that he'd given a reading back East and was chatting afterward with a young, newly minted MFA graduate. As the conversatiion wandered along, my friend mentioned Prufrock. The grad, whose concentration had been in the writing of poetry, looked puzzled.<br /><br />You know, my friend said. From Eliot's poem.<br /><br />The budding bard admitted he hadn't heard of Eliot.<br /><br />You didn't read T. S. Eliot in school?<br /><br />The kid shook his head. Was he any good?<br /><br />It's fair to wonder who the elders are that taught this young man. Are they incompetent or simply ignorant themselves? Or are they mere functionaries in a system designed to cash checks and issue degrees? Pairs of ragged claws, so to speak....Joseph Hutchisonhttp://www.jhwriter.comnoreply@blogger.com