Poets are conduits

                                                     
                                                             
On October 24, 2008, on his not poetry blog, Bill Knott
posted which is too much.  Through an anecdote from the
Selected Writings of Walter Benjamin, the practice of  
Mallarmé initiates what soon becomes a serious discussion
about poets and what to him are the two core esthetics.    
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Thus Brecht versus Rilke and their associated ramifications.
See the Selden Rodman quote taken from the Preface for 
his 1949 Anthology: One Hundred Modern Poems.
                                                                 
Reading Mr. Knott's words hit me in the head much as         
(when we were in grade school) Markevich's glove did     
in what was supposed to be a controlled boxing match  
I immediately stopped, knowing I would not be able to 
defend myself against his longer reach.  Honestly, I
do not intend to counter Bill Knott's thinking here
either; but I will be sharing past and present turns
of mine that will include some poems because of the
ideas in them.  Stunningly--to me at least--back in 
the 1960s I wrote this sonnet and in the 1970s this       
for Doug Flaherty poem; but just so you can grasp--
should you prefer to ignore them--why they matter    
now, here are their titles: "The Future Belongs to the
Rilkeans" and "The Marriage of God and Money".  *
I was raised as a Roman Catholic.                            
                                                          
Knott: "The question then as today seems to be, what 
'faith' should one aspire to 'contribute' one's artistic
efforts toward the furtherance of: individual (spiritual)
or collective (socialist)?"  And later: "'Individual
faith' versus 'Collective faith.'  Capitalism (Religion/
Fascism) versus Socialism.  Or: Style versus Content."   
                                                            
What is difficult for me now is that I cannot take one
side over the other.  Further, equating Religion with
Fascism forced me to seek an extended definition of 
the latter.  I found one.  It is at Old Amercian Century.
14 Points are listed.  However, under each point are
numerous links to copyrighted material.  I suggest you
read only the 14 points and what the final link zaps to.           
Humans are humans, and while extensive quality-of-life
changes continue to occur, quality-of-thought changes
have taken on different faces but essentially remained
the same.  Know that I say this, hoping I am wrong.           -                                               
                                                       
Still, poets are conduits.  Some are so of this.  Some
are so of that.  Some consistently/purposely change.
Some are so of whatever, or like to imagine they are.
I am among those.  Accordingly, the aesthetic I support 
is: Write as you are moved to write.                        
                                                      
                                                        
Here are three more Knott statements:                           
-                                                       
"In fact, in this dispensation, in this scale of esthetics,
the more insignificant the ostensible subject is, the better."
-                                                             
"The more boring the content, the more intriguing the style
(theoretically)."                                              
-                                                             
"Content/subject/intent are excrescences that burden the work
with extraneous matter."                                     
                                                                 
                                                            
Finally, as befits him, Bill Knott ends his post with:
-                                                     
"Form is never more than an extension of breakfast.  As
shown in this poem by Jacques Prévert, trans. by the
forgotten poet Selden Rodman:"                
                                                      
The translated title of the poem is: LATE RISING          
                                                 
                                                 
                                                 
    
                                                            
          
Kh00010                                                                                              
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