“Why does most poetry stink?”

It’s been 12 years since Dana Gioia asked “Can Poetry Matter?” in The Atlantic Monthly, and now William Waltz is stirring the perennial poetic stewpot by asking “Does Poetry Matter?” in The Rake (Twin Cities).

Waltz, the editor of Conduit, is a provocateur who throws similes around quite joyfully as he circles around the connections between poetry & money, reviews the recent “news of the weird” in the poetry scene, wonders at “the preference to write rather than to read poetry” when poetry is so clearly discounted in the mainstream of American society, recounts his experience at a reading by Billy Collins (“rare breed: He makes a living as a poet”), and finally concludes that “the poetry world is primed for (and maybe on the verge of) a roaring comeback. And, although many poets seem content to write poems that only connoisseurs and mothers could love, a growing populist movement seems bent on dragging poetry back into the mainstream...” Just what we wanted to hear! Do you think it's true?

Related articles at About Poetry:
“The Reverse Blurb Chapter,” an invitation from Gary Glazner
Poetry in Times Like These, by Victor Infante
Poets’ Work, How do we make a living?