I've written "preferences" too many times and now I can't tell how it's spelled.
As you know, line breaks are huge for me, because I like that extra layer of wordplay. Anyway, I'm glad you mentioned them. One thing I'm on the fence on are references to things like facebook and google. Yeah, they are ensconced in the everyday but some of those things are so fleeting. I mean, if I wrote a poem that mentions Napster, that might be kind of out of left-field because now Napster isn't "a thing". That said, I don't like poems that make use of social media or contemporary pop-culture because I think as far as associations go, it's a bit lazy. It's one thing to reference something that has solidified, like Mickey Mouse or Hulk Hogan but talking about facebook or electronic music or whatever, gets my goat. Maybe it's just that I've never found a poem that I think makes use of those things well. I also don't like political poems, even though I've written political poems. It seems like extended sloganeering to me. I guess I'm not really into narrative poems in general, which political poems can tend to be.
My next written post (audio going up Friday for the 4th) is supposed to be either political poems or bird poems. I don't know if you're aware but Rattle is doing this thing where they publish a poem every Sunday in which a poet responds to a current event...that occurred within the last week. I think this raises several questions, the biggest for me being "Is a week-r-less really long enough to produce a great poem on a given subject matter?" I am not sure how I feel about political poems. I can't write them, I know that.
I'm afraid I have your friend beat. For me, literary writing should exist outside of the confines of its time and writing about something as topical as a headline from a particular week is ok, but its power and value should go beyond that easily forgotten germ. As for productivity vs. finesse, there needs to be a balance. Once you get into a productive mode, it's easy to keep rattling things off but I've often found that a pattern begins to emerge about what ideas I can't let go of during that time. After a while I just repeat myself and then I know that it's time to get down to the business of shaping and finishing (though I often don't). This balance is very much a part of what I'm after at the moment.
If you want a lesson in the bizarre juxtaposition of dated things-that-you-also-grew-up-with, read the new Pynchon novel. Napster's in there, as well as a a whole lot of other things (y2k, patriot act, etc) that already seem dated to write about -- but that's the point, after all the book came out in '12. Really just read the thing in general, it's a masterpiece. Or have you read it?
thud!Poems are things of delicacy. You should never pound me over the head with one.
Some are, others are giant rocks meant to be pounded upon people's heads. Some exist in-between. I agree that line breaks should be done with intent and should serve the poem, just suggesting that sometimes, in that service they exist to go