dumbfoundry

Some of the songs I have enjoyed the most in my life I can no longer really enjoy, because they have quite simply expired from overuse. I think of most Ramones, Patsy Cline, and Beatles songs in this regard. This doesn't mean that those songs have expired universally; for generations of listeners, they are as fresh and exciting as they once were for me. And there's no real reason they should continue to engage me. They worked great when I needed them. I could say the same thing of certain poets: E. E. Cummings, Dylan Thomas, Sylvia Plath, James Tate. I think I've discussed this before, if not on this blog, then in actual conversation with humans--I consider these writers "gateway poets." They turn people on to poetry. They prepare you for the "hard stuff." One tendency is to turn one's nose up at such poets once one has "grown out" of them, and I have been guilty of this myself. But this is like saying that stuffed animals are worthless because one no longer sleeps with them, and one prefers instead to sleep with attractive humans; at one time, those stuffed animals were absolutely indispensable companions, and they may even in a small way have prepared one to be a better bed partner. [...]

This entry was posted by eeksypeeksy on Thursday, August 04, 2005 at 9:59 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.