Poet Ogasawara Torui guides us through the history of "contemporary poetry" in the 2000s

Guide: Ogasawara Birds

What are the words of the heart that you can't find on the internet? Portraits of poets who created new writing styles in a time of calm in the poetry world

Poetry born in conjunction with the spread of the internet can be described as modern poetry of the 2000s. Around 2000, there were "Internet poets" with their own text websites, some of whom were idol-like. Gradually, it became easier to publish words expressing "feelings" on blogs and social media. In the "Power of Words" special feature [A] in the 2007 issue of Brutus, there is a passage that says that "the power of modern poetry" is greater than "lukewarm blogs."

In the past, there were words of the heart, hidden words, written in notebooks and diaries. These were rarely read by others, and sometimes even scandalous, like special "poetry." Looking back at history, these words are perhaps like those of Nakahara Chuya. However, as the internet has become more widely used, hidden words have become commonplace and are now publicly available, and words of the heart are no longer special. How are words that are special "poetry" possible? I believe that poets who offer unique answers to this question are typical of the 2000s.

One iconic poet is Saihate Tahi [B]. He made his debut in the 2000s, and in the 2010s, his poetry collection was made into a film, transcending the genre of contemporary poetry. His works smoothly use words that are close to everyday life, yet they feel shrewdly constructed. Many of his titles are memorable, such as "To Us Who Are Going to Die." In that sense, we cannot leave out Fuzuki Yuuki's [C] "The Inappropriate Me in an Appropriate World." I believe this is one of the most widely known lines from poetry of the 2000s.

Naturally, it's difficult to create a new way of writing. I believe that modern poetry can fall into any depth. While tanka and haiku seem to rely on form and rules to maintain quality, modern poetry seems to place more importance on "heart" than "form," and it's always a single, unstable language.

One magazine that tries to support this world of poetry is the Modern Poetry Notebook [D]. I feel that this magazine also underwent a gradual change in the 2000s. In the 1990s, it was, in a word, a "scary magazine." Critics who also wrote poetry discussed poetry earnestly, sometimes with abusive force. It was scary, but it made you want to be recognized. That fear gradually faded as the 2000s began. This may be due to the decline in the number of commentators up until the 1990s, and the growing sense that hurtful criticism is not good. In this relaxed atmosphere, gentle poetry began to attract attention. A symbolic figure is Hachikai Mimi [E].

I feel that he writes poetry while consciously considering how to entertain his readers while controlling his own emotions. Wago Ryoichi is also known as an extremely prolific poet, but also as a strong but fearless critic. This atmosphere must have led to the later appearance of Saihate and Fuzuki. On the other hand, there have also been avant-garde, genuinely enjoyable poems, such as Sato Yusuke's "Sailor Liebe: My Ship," packed with words without line breaks, and Toyama Isao's "ODEXVAG," where words fly everywhere. I hope that more people will read these poems.

In the October 2007 issue of "Contemporary Poetry Notebook," Yoshimoto Takaaki dismissed young poets, calling them "boring" and saying their pen names were no good. In truth, the 2000s were filled with many wonderful poets, and I think it was a time when the entire genre of contemporary poetry was trying to become more interesting. But it needed to be even more interesting. There are plenty of other interesting things, like music and film. In that respect, I feel that the poems from the 1920s, from which I chose to submit poems, are becoming more interesting. Perhaps the seeds sown back then are beginning to bear fruit.