I remember how Kenneth Koch used to say that if poetry isn’t as much fun or as exciting as something else, why bother with it? Why not spend your time on what really moves you? It’s not that simple of course, but i’m always interested by the fact that literally millions of people watch videos of kittens on youtube and are hugely affected by them. there’s one kitten clip that’s had 11 million views. if only it were possible to do something with poetry that could get a tiny fraction of that energy. I can watch 28 minutes of John Ashbery. But I’m peculiar.
And let me hasten to add that I too like kitten videos — and indeed I like good schmaltz of all kinds. One of my interests is videos of attractive women singing Leonard Cohen’s song, ‘Halleluljah.’ The best example of this was by a Dutch girl who suddenly disappeared for some reason. But there are still plenty of others left:
The all time best version is by K.D. Laing. Really incredible. This German girl isn’t too great but she’s trying.
Lastly, it isn’t really a kitten video but in different versions this one has been seen by about 10 million people. They write in and say how they were moved to tears by it. They’re tremendously excited and stimulated. When Ashbery memorably wrote, "Mild effects are the result" he wasn’t referring to kittens!
(Caution: unless you really like schmaltz, I recommend playing this without the sound.)