In honor of National Poetry Month, the Academy of American Poets has been sending out a poem a day via email to subscribers. I’m enjoying them, but one of them just…
Have you ever found the form of a poem to be so weird that it gets into the way of the meaning? I’m finding that to be the case with “Ferrum” by M. NourbeSe Philip. I did get the words, but the format was so distracting as to make reading a chore, rather than a pleasure.
Pretentious. Perhaps, good poetry, but done in a pretentious and inexcusably egregious manner.
The formatting strikes me as a case of confusing obscurity with depth. However, I should point out that I’m tired enough to not be able to remember my login for this site, so I may not be being sufficiently charitable to the poem.
Weird form should, I think, convey some kind of meaning. It can work, but it can also just be a barrier.
Weird form can be meaningful if it serves a purpose or is representative… this poem is just annoying 🙁