It appears that pretty much 90% of the poems I read is indulgement in emotions, nothing more. It seems that any artform that is the celebration or manifestation of emotion is pointless to me. I think the best poetry is strictly intellectual, but even that is shit. Poetry is the lowest art form I would say unless, and only unless, it is strictly a celebration of intellectual hubris. That is all. This is the only poetry that I see that has point. A poetry that disses all poetry. Insert Completely Meaningless Title Here Ashokan Lets put arbitrary 1 line breaks and 2 pointless 3 white 4 space 5 and we'll call it 6 poetry. 7 We have no rhythm 8 and a lack of beat 9 we make it all up 10 by acting smarter than you. 11 You 12 don't 13 get it, 14 do you? 15 Are the bewildering confabulating pompous references 16 toomuchforyoutobear? 17 Does your mind sound too much like a drum? 18 Do you not grasp my metaphorical cleverness? 19 We spasmodically tap tap tap the TAB 20 while pounding 21 the 22 return 23 button 24 to make our 25 meaning 26 a little more... shall we say.... 27 intellectual? 28 If we could write good poetry 29 we'd be 30 songwriters (!) 31 but instead we 32 pat ourselves 33 (pat, pat) 34 on the back for our 35 remarkable, obvious talents 36 and our 37 supremely 38 supreme 39 supremacy! 40 For all you (eugh) republicans 41 out there, 42 that was an alliteration. 43 http://poetry.tetto.org/read/10771/
My English teacher gave this analogy: writing a novel is like taking a house apart brick by brick; poets achieve the same by placing dynamite at each corner. You're right though - poems are rubbish, and their authors deservedly get bullied in school. Apart from Sylvia Plath, obviously - but then you knew that.
In America at least, more people write poetry than read it. Your job then as a consumer is to find the poetry that has already been read and recommended by people whose judgment you trust, rather than simply poems that are well marketed. If even after doing that you find that the poems everyone else likes are the ones you find artless, then you're probably just living in the wrong country. I think I'm a pretty typical American in that I simply don't understand poetry. My favorite poets are Doctor Seuss, Ogden Nash, and A. A. Milne, because they entertain me. The poetry in the lyrics of popular music is similarly accessible and moreover, far more entertaining as a package deal. Anything "deeper" than that is paradoxically "over my head." I'm hopelessly unable to interpret "serious" prose and "serious" poetry is even harder, almost by definition. You're making fun of blank verse and beat and all the artsy-fartsy avant-garde stuff, and much of it is indeed written as an inside joke with the twist that the poet is often not in on the joke. But to the extent that you find even traditional, respected poetry to be indulgence in emotions... Well duh, isn't one of the primary purposes of art to help connect us with our emotions and understand them? That's certainly true of instrumental music and all non-verbal art like sculpture. It doesn't tell us anything, it evokes a reaction. Verbal art is unique in that it has a high informational bandwidth, but that doesn't mean that all authors and poets have to use all of it. It's okay to write a song that does little more than make us laugh or cry, and a song is just a poem with a melody. I don't appreciate poetry (with the exceptions noted) so I'm not trying to sell you on it. And I'm a fellow caveman who thinks something without meter and rhyme is not a poem. But I don't think you're being fair in dismissing it, basically just because you get nothing out of it. It's not meant to be an artform with broad appeal.
I like Wendy Cope. We make more fuss of ballads than of blueprints -- That's why so many poets end up rich, While engineers scrape by in cheerless garrets. Who needs a bridge or dam? Who needs a ditch? Whereas the person who can write a sonnet Has got it made. It's always been the way, For everybody knows that we need poems And everybody reads them every day. Yes, life is hard if you choose engineering -- You're sure to need another job as well; You'll have to plan your projects in the evenings Instead of going out. It must be hell. While well-heeled poets ride around in Daimlers, You'll burn the midnight oil to earn a crust, With no hope of a statue in the Abbey, With no hope, even, of a modest bust. No wonder small boys dream of writing couplets And spurn the bike, the lorry and the train. There's far too much encouragement for poets -- That's why this country's going down the drain.
"like, my 7th grade teacher taught me some good rhyme schemes, and now I'm a poet, but I haven't read anything other than a few greeting cards." How very true. I do have to say, for me, William Blake, Robinson Jeffers, Emily dickinson, Robert Frost, even Dante - all were incredibly talented writers. And T.S. Eliot, may be the greatest of all. Nice.
Dickinson rocks too: Because I could not stop for Death-- He kindly stopped for me-- The Carriage held but just Ourselves-- And Immortality.
My favourite poets: Wilde, Ryokan, Blake, Tennyson, Keats, Poe, Ono no Komachi, and Izumi Shikibu. As for poetry as a whole: Most poetry is crap, specifically modern poetry. I especially hate free-verse.
Poem before seppuku/harakiri/suicide is commited, is very entertaining: Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Entertaing because, the meaning of life and failure within poem's words...are meaningless, noone cares but him who took his own life.
meaningful to those who see beyond life, who dare cross the line, and take their life because they saw what was meant within the words of seppuku poetry...its like a self-annihilation code. Read the magic words, gaze into the truth, cold and pitifull, and die with no regret.
I admire these words, of an unknown poet in the early 1930s. They resonate. Listen, listen The cat is pissin' Where? Where? He's under the chair! Quick! Quick! Get the gun! Nev'r mind...he's done. You'll notice I put the "nev'r" in there, which is very poetry-like.
What a wonderfull exspresion of your emotions towards poetry and those that compose it. The irony, The emotion. It seemed to flow strait from your heart. I believe you demonstrated why poetry is written very well. Bravo i say, Bravo.
I really like this one. It takes a fresh, almost aloof look at death. Nice post. Funny how this thread became a poetry thread.....lol
A one-L lama is a priest. A two-L llama is a beast. But I would bet a silk pajama: There isn't any three-L lllama. --Ogden Nash Now that's poetry that is both understandable and entertaining. Not to mention short.
