Pop poems may pull the punters to pubs, but that's all ...

In The Australian on the web at http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/only-greatness-not-popular-appeal-can-restore-poetry-as-the-nations-memory/story-e6frg8n6-1226085030898 there is a good article about poetry and its value. Here's a quote, but I hope you click on the link and read the article.

'Those who know what great poetry is covet its place in the culture. Pop poems may pull the punters to pubs, but that's all.

In the same week that Baker was awarded her slam title, arguably one of Australia's finest living poets, Christopher Wallace Crabbe, was awarded an Order of Australia. This was, so the citation noted, "For service to the arts as a leading poet, critic and educator."

What needs to be grasped is that not all poetry has the capacity to move us. Great poetry does. To this end, American poet Randall Jarrell was right when he said: "A good poet is someone who manages, in a lifetime of standing out in thunderstorms, to be struck by lightning five or six times." '

PS: The link to TRUCK below is now fixed. Sorry for my mistake.