The Poetics of Fundamentalism

American Poetry is a world unto its own where a variety of religions thrive and fight, each with God on their side. Every religion consists of many churches, each of which has its own cardinals and bishops and priests. All believe in the infallibility of their word and in the wrong-headed ways of the infidels that preach another creed. Although I have been attending the church of the neoformalists for the past ten years, I have never been baptized. I’m agnostic and resemble Groucho Marx in more ways than one; I guess I would never belong to a club that would have me as a member either. Bob Grumman has put together a directory of the schools of American Poetry. Here are the eight main religions as he see them:

-Mainstream Poetry
-Easy-Stream Poetry
-Language Poetry
-Contra-Genteel Poetry
-Neoformalist Poetry
-Pluraesthetic Poetry
-Infraverbal Poetry
-Hypertextual Poetry

In the coming weeks, I’ll try to understand these religions and their various archdioceses, using Grumman’s list as my rough course outline. In the meanwhile, to paraphrase a prayer I’ve heard: Word, if you are, forgive me. Word, if you are not, be.