 Poetry: March 20, 2019 Issue [#9447] |
This week: Confidence! Edited by: Fyn  
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If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.~~ Emily Dickinson
Poetry is not difficult. If you possess one of the five senses, poetry is in it. If you can compose text message, tweet or Facebook status, you can write poetry. If you can rap a song, you can rhyme poetry. If you can memorise a prayer, you can recite poetry. If you struggle to make sense of formatted text, poetry is your call.~~ Gloria D. Gonsalves
He drove his mind into the abyss where poetry is written.~~ George Orwell
Poetry is just the evidence of life. If your life is burning well, poetry is just the ash.~~ Leonard Cohen
If you can’t be a poet, be the poem.~~ David Carradine
Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.~~ Dylan Thomas
Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.~~ Carl Sandburg
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"I know I'm not a really good poet, but …."
"I've never been any good at writing poetry, but …."
It's not very good, but, I tried."
"I know I'll never be good at it."
"I'm not a poet, but."
"I write short stories or novels; poetry doesn't have enough words. I can't write that short."
Seriously? Why do poeple persist in thinking that all poetry is Shakespearian or Shaw-istic? That if it isn't (in their mind) as good as a classical poet's work that 'it isn't any good?'
A poem:
-- when you've bled your soul
onto the paper
where rivulets of tears dribbled
smearing the ink.
-- evidence of your heart
splattering
or what's left after
your brain sneezed.
That. That bit there? Originally it was just a sentence or two. Then I played with spacing, took out some 'it's' and a poem popped into being. Is it the greatest poem ever penned? No, of course not. But here's the thing: It. Doesn't. Have. To. Be! Do I like it? Yeah, actually. It expresses my thoughts. It serves its purpose.
I write poetry. I have since I was a little kid. I wrote short stories in college only because we had to and I couldn't imagine writing a whole novel! So much for that! I remember being flat out terrified of writing dialog. Check out my early work and somehow, I managed to get away with next to none and lots of action. But I persisted. I learned. I failed. I achieved. I grew and I got better. I learned about writing in levels. (sSo NOT evident in above poem - but that is okay!
All poetry does not have to rhyme. I used to think it did, but I've learned differently. I've learned that sometime rhyming fits and thast over times - not so much. I read one of 🌕 HuntersMoon  's sonnets and am blown away. He has a flair for sonnets. But I bet he'd tell you that it came with effort and energy, trial and error. And I bet (though, I suppose, I could be wrong) that he's never said he 'wasn't good.' Being able to write poetry is an ongoing, evolving process. I remember someone saying, "I'm no Maya Angelu.' No one is, except that lady herself. Nor should they want to be anyone except themselves!
Poetry is subjective. Not every person likes every style or gets it or understands it and that, too, is perfectly fine. No one can write for all the readers on earth. Cultures, life styles, age, education, experience all color a reader's perceptions. Just as they do the poet's. Everyone's audience is not the same. If someone doesn't like what you've written, it doesn't mean it isn't any good or that you can't write poetry. It means that a specific poem just might not be their cup of tea.
Now, this isn't to say that constructive criticism isn't warranted or that perhaps, a few different choices might be made. But there is a huge difference between tweaking a piece or, even, totally rewriting something and one thinking that they 'can't write poetry.'
When I was a whopping six years old, Robert Frost told me some things about being a poet and writing poetry. When I met him, I'd told him I was a poet too. He said that I wasn't; not yet. The poem I'd written (in crayon, no less) had a line about my cat being gray. He asked me what kind of gray? Was it the gray of a misty morning or the gray of bedtime? He said I needed to use more words to describe my cat. I remember telling him, "I don't have a lot of words yet, I'm only six." He nodded and then told me I'd get more words the more I lived. He said that being a poet was more about what was living in my soul than the words and that eventually, I'd find the words. Every poet, he'd said, was on a mission to find the right combinations of words to fit a specific moment and that was what he was always doing. I told my grandmother I wanted to be a 'word-finder' just like him some day. And then, then told me he knew I had a poet's soul even if I wasn't there yet. But that one day, I would be. I didn't really understand it all, back then. But my grandmother told me of that day numerous times. She wanted me to remember it. I have. I'd so love to be able to talk to him now, as I once did as a little girl.
When one is a writer, even a neophyte, embrace the learning process. You are 'becoming.' Progressing. Learning. Be proud of the evolution!
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My senior show for my BA had a lot of charcoal artworks, and I wanted to include poetry.
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Casey writes: Ah, you say it so well re your "Distillation" poem. Am going to copy and make a poster of your list to place above my computer. All the prepositions and determiners (the, she, he, it) that we poets should learn to do without when it might be said in a more interesting way! Thank you!
LinnAnn -Book writer  says: I loved all of your 'words' you introduced me to. Thanks!
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