Is modern poetry worth reading

It is time to emerge from the shadow of the reluctance to speak out on the simple matter of what actually is poetic.

The members of Stanza Mar Menor have looked closely as to what is being written, who by and who is doing the judging. One other member and myself looked at the winner of the Ledbury Poetry Festival competition of 2015. We looked at the writing of others to the extent of trying to understand what did it all mean. We took a look at the backgrounds of the winners and of the judges. It was not difficult to see that 'academia' was judging 'academia'. You could almost say that it was judging itself. It seems that this endemic in the majority and that the ordinary poets are virtually guaranteed to be paying without any hope of ever winning. I do not think that is fair or honest.

So, the question is 'what is the person in the street actually writing?'. What is the common man or woman saying in verse? Within competitions, can there be a voice heard after the first sifting? I doubt it. I suppose that Poetic Republic tried to address this where entries into the competition were judged by other entrants and we did participate in that.

I have been prompted into this piece of writing as a member of Stanza Mar Menor has recently died and he was the consummate professional when it came to metre, rhythm and rhyme. He railed against what he saw 'was not poetry'. Here was a man that could write a sonnet before breakfast with the correct rhythm and rhyming scheme.

Douglas Hill in his book Streams of Conscience wrote in his short verse, 'On Poetry',

They spun sweet words, but now we hear the chime
Of dissonance, all hope of cadence failed,
While stricken lovers of past times bewailed
The loss of language pure, of verse sublime'

He does say however and ask

'Can this be regarded as a crime?'

He was never pretentious to the extent that he realized that language, with words, moves on.

I am a member of the Poetry Society in London and the poem of the month recently was one by Jacob Polley called Applejack. I read with wonderment! The wonderment of not believing what was on the page in front of me. I don't understand it. I don't like the look of it. I can forgive him for the spaces - seemingly placed at random - if it is intended to be performed. Likewise the poem Nightlines and both are contained in his prize winning book Jackself the winner of the TS Eliot prize for poetry and worth £20,000. The chair of the judging panel, Ruth Padel who has been the Oxford Professor of Poetry described it as 'a firework of a book'. She is entitled to her opinion.

The question now is what do the 'ordinary' writers do?. There is a simple answer to that is that we keep on writing with cadence, rhythm and even rhyme (if you have to!) and with honesty. If others want to carry on 'in fashion' and do what wins prizes then that is okay, but I am not playing.

It has been asked will some of the modern writing of today be remembered and discussed like Seamus Heaney, Dylan Thomas, or William Wordsworth. I think there is not a rat's chance in hell for that. We like what we like and it is good to change; to challenge what we do and how we do it and that is why I will not stick unpleasant labels on someone else's efforts. But I am entitled to say that I don't like it and whether it is poetic or not.

Where are the words that ordinary mortals write next! I will keep doing what I love to do, but now without the oversight of a man who has now left us permanently - the inspirational Douglas Wilson Hill.