Upcoming events:
Friday May 25, 2012 at 7:15 PM - Poetry Aloud and Alive at Big Blue Marble Bookstore, 551 Carpenter Lane, West Mt. Airy, Philadelphia, this month featuring Nancy Scott and Lois Harrod, hosted by Mike Cohen and Connie Swartzman
Coming soon to this site:
CO-ETRY – AN ALTERNATIVE LITERARY GENRE
Poetry has broadened itself practically out of existence. Go to a poetry reading and you may hear structured verse, free verse, blank verse, haiku, prose poetry, poetic prose, spoken word, rants, ravings and just about anything. Poetry has become overgeneralized, outgrowing its definition. When I do a poetry reading, I’d like people to have some idea what I mean by poetry. A lot of my poetry has an element of stand- up comedy, although plenty of it is stand-up tragedy. But that part of the anatomy of my work that is principally comic I like to call CO-ETRY… a hybrid of comedy and poetry… get it? CO-ETRY is a word that acknowledges not only the kindred nature some poetry shares with comedy, but also recognizes by virtue of its first two letters some of its virtues. With the prefix co- meaning “together; joint or jointly” (according to Funk and Wagnalls, who co-authored a great dictionary) the term CO-ETRY reflects its own collaborative foundation, its collective essence, its communicative imperative, its cooperative nature, its connective force, and its communal character. CO-ETRY has a nobly selfless ring, but don’t be deceived. It’s a word for a genre I’ve co-opted by applying the beginning of my surname to it… CO-ETRY.
If you enjoy the poetry on this blog, please visit http://mikecohensays.wordpress.com/ to explore other chambers of Mike’s brain.
Some of my other work may also be found on the following sites:
http://www.foxchasereview.org/08AW/01-MikeCohen.html
http://www.foxchasereview.org/09AW/13-MCohen.html
