“Contemporary society is overrun with self-proclaimed “poets” who relish in the title yet produce very little poetic fire. Much of what parades as poetry these days reeks of self-pitying confessions dressed up in the garb of “artistic expression.” It fixates on the temporal and panders to the superficial trends and fragile sensitivities of an identity-obsessed culture.

Much of today’s poetry is little more than an indulgence in personal idiosyncrasies, which is why it’s all so bloodless and cerebral and stripped of any potency to shake up or jolt the soul.

Unsurprising, I guess, in this navel-gazing age where “personal identity” is exalted like a sacred idol and the sanctuaries of creative thought have been battered by suffocating ideologies.”

(full article below)