Anti-poetry is a literary movement that advocates breaking with the usual conventions of traditional poetry. Early proponents of anti-poetry include the Chilean Nicanor Parra[1] and the Greek Elias Petropoulos.[2]
Parra, known as the father of anti-poetry, published his first collection of antipoems in 1954,[3] rejecting the conventional belief that verse holds a mystical power. His poems have been described as prose-like, irreverent, and illuminating of human existential concerns.[4]
Petropoulos sought to describe the art of anti-poetry in his Berlin notebook containing verses that included intentionally-made mistakes of prosody, grammar, and rhyme. An inspiration for many of his poems was the difficult atmosphere of the wall-divided Berlin where he resided. Petropoulos had come to believe that poetry centered on love and desire was too gentle for modern literature – that it was time for an anti-poetry incorporating anti-sentimental feelings.[5]