Customer Reviews

Real Things: An Anthology of Popular Culture in American Poetry

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It has always bothered me to read pretentious modern poetry which makes reference to Greek mythology, ancient history, and other esoteric subjects which are the delight of scholars but which are completely irrelevant to our life and times. Ezra Pound is a particularly aggravating practitioner of scholarly poetry. Modern poetry should be capable of embracing our tawdry popular culture and transforming it into the sublime though the simple devices of contemplation and intellectualization. The poet should have something to say about shopping malls and television even if only to point out how they provide depersonalizing experiences which tend to isolate us.

Real Things contains many poems that are delightful if only for their subject matter; poems about Gilligan's Island, soap operas, Superman, Frankenstein's monster, grocery stores, shopping malls, and strippers. Many of these poems are easier to relate to than "serious poetry" because the poets are being true to their actual experience of the mundane which is far more likely to speak to our life experiences than another retelling of the tragedy of Orpheus.

There are a few notable poets missing from this anthology. I think Charles Bukowski, Lyn Lifshin, and Gerald Locklin have written enough poems of this nature to deserve inclusion in such a collection. Maybe the editors could not get permission from the publishers but the absence of these poets suggests that this is still poetry for the elite.

This is the perfect book for people who like to read poems about things that we are faced with every day. These are truthful accounts and they speak from the heart of those who are writting their stories. This novel includes poems about Barbie Dolls, pornography, the challenges of being bi-sexual and captures a rather large picture of our American culture. This is an excellent book for any one who likes Popular Culture and for those who do not like to analyze their poetry! Very easy to read and highly entertaining.