Poetry in Motion

I'll say one thing, this Ron Mann documentary is singlle handedly responsible for more bad poetry than anything else in history. I'm serious, the second it came out EVERYBODY was a poet and wanted top hop up in some cafe corner bleeping and farting and spouting nonsensical rhymes. I of course found this both annoying and funny as I'm predominantly from the GENE SIMMONS SCHOOL OF POETICS which clearly states you do it to get laid and this lot of maladjusted freakazoids certainly weren't about to be gittin' any with this epilectic display of pathetic pathos. I kind of felt the same way watching POETRY IN MOTION for the first time back in the day. While we have the big names in Ginsberg, Burroughs, Bukowski and such we are treated to a myriad of other novelties which left most scratching their heads, holding the ears and thinking back to their elders from the sixties who tended to behave in such fashions after one too many cocktails at the dinner party.
Let me be clear, I'm not knocking ANYBODY here, the point I wish to make is what Mann showcase here is not "mainstream" and in some ways is a continuation of his jazz doc from a year earlier IMAGINE THE SOUND. Being a Toronto boy, Mann at least was careful enough to include some Canadian talent, the early footage of Ondaatje being of special interest though I've always wonder why Gwendolyn MacEwan didn't make the roster. Overall, an important piece of work which displays the talents of a generation and will be useful in the years to come.