Poetic Parodies

I noticed in this batch that a few people seemed to be satirizing... well, the act of writing poetry.  This (along with, more generally, the difficulty inherent in writing) is always a totally legit subject matter.  It seems like the trick, though, is to make the satire obvious while still either avoiding or parodying individual elements of stylistic cliche.  In other words, the poem has to spin several plates at the same time (it has to be entertaining and criticizing pretension and cliche while utilizing pretension and cliche, indicating a narrator that isn't self-aware while still demonstrating that the author is self-aware, etc).  

With all that in mind, let's look at the following example and discuss where the energy of this poem is coming from, i.e. what it's offering to the audience:

The Introduction
by Billy Collins

I don't think this next poem

needs any introduction -

it's best to let the work speak for itself.

Maybe I should just mention

that whenever I use the word five,

I am referring to that group of Russian composers

who came to be known as "The Five,"

Balakirev, Moussorgsky, Borodin - that crowd.

Oh - and Hypsicles was a Greek astronomer.

He did something with the circle.

That's about it, but for the record,

"Grimké" is Angelina Emily Grimké, the abolitionist.

"Imroz" is that little island near the Dardanelles.

"Monad" - well, you all know what a monad is.

There could be a little problem

with mastaba, which is one of those Egyptian

above-ground sepulchers, sort of brick and limestone.

And you're all familiar with helminthology?

It's the science of worms.

Oh, and you will recall that Phoebe Mozee

is the real name of Annie Oakley.

Other than that, everything should be obvious.

Wagga Wagga is in New South Wales.

Rhyolite is that soft volcanic rock.

What else?

Yes, meranti is a type of timber, in tropical Asia I think,

and Rahway is just Rahway, New Jersey.

The rest of the poem should be clear,

I'll just read it and let it speak for itself.

It's about the time I went picking wild strawberries.

It's called, "Picking Wild Strawberries."