Jin Shikai, editor-in-chief of the China Poetry Network, published an article, "Poetry is still wonderfully "alive" at present." Jin Shikai's words are not wrong, the poetry of the moment is not only alive, but also alive and wonderful. However, this "wonderful" does not seem to belong to the poetry world.
The image comes from China Poetry Network
As the editor-in-chief of China Poetry Network, Jin Shikai listed a data: China Poetry Network has nearly 2 million people online every day, and receives nearly 3,000 poetry works every day. What a huge number? This shows that poetry has a strong vitality.
The image comes from China Poetry Network
However, this number does not mean that the poetry world is still alive, let alone "wonderful". Today's poetry is actually divided into two parts: one part is the poetry circle represented by "famous poets", and the other part is the amateur poets represented by the vast number of unknown poetry lovers. There are indeed many amateur poets, and there are many poetry lovers.
They feel something, and when they encounter something, they always want to express it in poetry. They are active in the circle of friends, various groups, major platforms, they are like weeds, tenacious growth. With a sincere love for poetry, they held up a piece of poetry in the sky.
Jin Shikai (image from the Internet)
And the poetry circle represented by the "famous poets" seems to have lived a wonderful life. They dominate major publications, they win major awards, they publish one book after another. They praise me, and the poetry world seems to be a prosperous scene.
However, there is an unbridgeable gap between poetry and poetry. The poems of "famous poets" cannot be recognized by poetry lovers, and the works of poetry lovers will not enter the eyes of "famous poets". For example, poetry in the poetry altar is like the flowers and plants cultivated in the greenhouse, which look beautiful, but it is difficult to survive without the greenhouse.
Jin Shikai (image from the Internet)
Therefore, poetry and poetry are alive, but the life of poetry cannot be grounded and cannot leave the greenhouse. They are self-contained, have nothing to do with sunlight, have nothing to do with rain. Even if they say they like "nature," the nature they see, the nature in the greenhouse, is not really nature.
They also say loneliness, but their loneliness is not real loneliness, but imaginary loneliness. They even think that urine is also beautiful, and they even think that making a pie is also poetic. They think of foul language as "the language of poetry," and they think of export as "honesty."
Jin Shikai (image from the Internet)
Why? Because they are limited to that small world. What they see is those things. So, while the poetry is still alive, it's actually dead. Leaving that greenhouse, they had no life. Outside this greenhouse, however, is a different story: birds singing, or storms, or ice and snow.
Poetry is indeed alive, and it lives wonderfully, although it does not look so beautiful, but the vitality is tenacious, and no wind or rain can destroy them. The poetry world, on the surface, looks alive, but in fact has no vitality.
Jin Shikai (image from the Internet)
The only way for the poetry to survive is to open the greenhouse and accept the baptism of the storm. This may really make the poetry world die, but this kind of life will have surprises and bear fruit. Don't say that our poetry aesthetic is a hundred years behind the West, don't say that poetry can only be appreciated by professionals, and don't think of others as "fools". If this is the case, then is there still a need for such a poetry world to exist?
Therefore, poetry does live a wonderful life, but this cannot hide the endangerment of poetry. If the people of the poetry world include amateur poets when they are talking about life, but when they talk about the poetry world, they regard these people as "fools", then they will only cover up the facts and create illusions. This is not just deceiving oneself, but also deceiving others.