MARK ROBERTS – THE DEMISE OF POETRY
Many journals have themed issues but, as guest editor Les Wicks points out in his introduction Live Encounters Poetry & Writing, Special Humour Edition, humour is not a theme normally associated with contemporary poetry. Forms such as limericks and nonsense verse obviously have humour at their core, but aren’t really recognised as ‘serious’ literature. Perhaps the first ‘real’ poem which really made made me laugh out loud in public was Chris Mansell’s Definition poem: Pissed as a parrot, which I seem to recall I first heard at a reading upstairs in a strange, secret, vegetarian restaurant in Leichhardt, NSW.
But onto the issue at hand – my attempt at a humourous poem, The demise of poetry, somehow made the cut and made it into the Live Encounters Special Humour Edition. I hope that it provokes at least the hint of a giggle…….
Printed Shadows - 40 Years of Cultural Journalism 