Overheard at Booth 4: Poetry Movements

I just noticed... or just became aware... or just
woke
to the realization
that there are no poetry "movements"
currently.

In times past, there were surges of poetical movements,
something that identified generations,
something that brought forth new life
in the way that this artistic expression was used,
a new way of speaking poetry, a
new way of living through poetry ...

now, it seems as though there is nothing

No Romanticism,
No Harlem Renaissance,
No Modernism,
No Beat,
No Post-Modernism,

One might say that 1960s rock and roll
merged poetry with music, and perhaps that is where
poetry now lives, through rock
and then through rap
and hip hop.

Perhaps the spoken word movement of the 80s
and the poetry slams of the 90s
turned poetry into performance art in the 21st century,

But that seems to be to be more the method of
transmission, than of a coherent, unifying
theme that brings all humans together
to better understand the moment in which we are living.

Right now, it seems as though
we are all writing poetry alone
alone
alone
alone
on our phones,
desperately hitting post
send
and praying that we will
see some small bubble
pop up in a moment,
a little trigger that tells
us,
someone has read us,
someone has heard us,
someone out there,
for an instant,
clicked a button

to validate
the painful loneliness

of our self-isolation.



MR
2020-0405