Anonymous Text Retrieved from the Now Defunct 'Poetry & Advertising'

What Is That Supposed to Mean?

This "project" is born out of consternation and greed. I am fascinated by the possibilities of poetry, but I stand aghast when confronted with the uncompromising insanity of advertising. This is a place of confrontation, where sparks fly from the clash between the merciless machine of advertising and the fragile flower of poetry (how could the encounter of these two cause "sparks to fly"? there are more ways of looking at both I am sure and the "fragile flower of poetry" at least is a deliberate caricature). At the bottom of both lies the craving for information, both can be motored by lust. Advertising in its simplest form is merely a piece of information about the existence of just about anything. Poetry in its simplest form is merely a piece of information about the existence of just about anything. Both use words and images, both have gotten out of hand, both serve to satisfy individual need. One has become a way of making money by poisoning the world we live in, the other has become a way of losing money by poisoning the world we live in (I remind myself there are more ways of looking at both). They seem a perfect match, a perfect couple. Let us see how they get on if they move in together. I hate advertising to the point of fascination. I love poetry to the point of disgust. I admire the idea that you can make money by adding advertising to your blog - it is amazingly absurd, it is disrespectful, it is (I know) impossible. It destroys that by which it is carried. And yet it creates space for poetry of kind, so out of place it is. If we shift attention from the text itself, which should be at the centre of the reader's focus, to the advertising it attracts, we are likely to catch the creature unawares. It may prove a monster, but we might be in for a surprise. And will the other one be the beauty or the beast? Poetry will not so easily be disrobed and will lead us by the hand, as ever, into the dark woods. But we will observe her carefully too. Poetry in advertising, advertising in poetry. We superimose the two and get a new image. Every word is an advertisement for something. Poetry in advertising, advertising in poetry. Let us make the labyrinth thick enough to sigh with relief when we find the exit.