Sharon Mesmer

Here's an interesting article by Sharon Mesmer.

She argues that poetry and poetic innovation has been bogged down by critical writing debating the debates of poetry.

My take on this is that Critical Writing about contemporary poetry seems largely uninterested in what is taking place in poetry except for such works that fits neatly into the current (old) critical paradigms held by criticism. Critics are very eager to embrace challenging poetry; but it's "challenging" poetry which doesn't challenge them at all! They are very capable of pointing out how challenging it is.

Part of the problem is no doubt the idea of "innovation" which now has become so stable and repetitive.

Even the idea that computer programs will be the new innovation seems like ancient sci-fi. Of course this also leads me back to my critique of Katherine Hayles's book on digital poetry, which seems so tired because it doesn't recognize for example Tao Lin's use of Internet persona, it can only recognize programs that go through the most expected movements (movements raised in large part on scholarly writing about innovation).