I am reading Noor Unnahar’s book of poems, “yesterday i was the moon” published in 2018 by Clarkson Potter/Publishers.

I am enjoying the poetry so far, but I am “taking them slow.” Most of the poems are free verse without punctuation or capitalization. The form is similar to the way I write most of my poems. I haven’t read any of Ms. Unnahar’s work previously, and while I do read a few books of poetry every year, I tend to keep it to a minimum so that it doesn’t seep into the poetry I write.

I know there have been a few poets in recent history caught up in plagiarism and copying poems in style and substance enough to cause a stir in the poetry community. I guess when you talk about emotions and feelings, sometimes it seems like the same kind of themes and metaphors tend surface time and time again. I think there are also only a certain number of forms and styles to use, especially in modern/post-modern poetry with social media being one of the main sources for presenting one’s work.

What do you think of modern/post-modern poetry? Do you enjoy reading that type or some of the classics from earlier generations?