Rethink on Poetry

For years now I have held the idea that all poetry is crap, some a bit less crappy than others but all in all crap. Something so intimate and personal that it would be virtually impossible for someone else, besides the poet, to understand let alone appreciate. The way poetry is taught is, in part, to blame. Metaphors and similes, rhyme schemes and hidden meanings. These teachers, in an effort to teach to their required curriculum, are bound to squeeze the life and enjoyment out of poetry in order to be able to test quantifiable elements, award marks, get paid and go home. It is not from these teachers anyone will ever learn to love poetry. There is also reams and reams of poetry published (Ad nauseam) which are so sterile and painfully boring to read through. Who picks these poems for publication? Have they had all the sense and good taste surgically removed before becoming the editor of such books and magazines? Why does it seem so trite.

As an admission, and possible reason for my own heavy past criticism of poetry is that I am a failed poet myself. No failure in writing poetry but certainly in having it liked by the right people and having it published. Rejection has a way of seeping into your consciousness and forcing the realization that you are no good so why try? Despite this, I will catch a snippet of what poetry could be, big and thought provoking. Words, that when spoken, move me, fire up me and those around me in poetical ecstasy. A battle between my intellect and bruised ego against instinct, the feeling insides when you know - “that's it!” So who wins? It is easy to disregard poetry with a few snippy comments “All poetry is crap” it is easy to let editors who rejected you, people you don't even know, to triumph over what you, in your heart, know is right. Luckily (for me anyhow), if you are willing, events occur where the veil is lifted and someone points out an error in your thought process, a timely conversation or a chance meeting, which points you to your interpretation of instinct and the need to adjust this.

After a conversation about this subject with a girl, I met at a party last weekend. Embedded in the way she spoke and the way she looked at me I was shocked into seeing what was already there. Now I do not know, if questioned, that same girl would even know what she spurred (instead she may recount a slightly inebriated academic ranting a bit on poetry, all very uninteresting). Regardless it did what it did. So what follows is my rethink on poetry, fresh ideas, all thanks to a party conversation.

1. Professors, critics, and experts play this game where by they try to guess the details of the poem, extract hidden meanings and events, from all prose, but specifically poetry. Does this prime us to see what isn't there but what someone has overlaid onto the poetry, do the interpretation and analysis read instead as preconceived notions tainting our pure, tabula rasa interpretation of the work. A singular conversation between those who consume the poetry with the author who has created it.

2. Everyone is a poet, some just choose to develop their skill. - In everyone, there is a poet. We feel we breathe, we live poetry every day. It is the act of putting into writing what we feel, what we absorb from our existence. Now this being said not everyone chooses to develop this talent, and in others still it does not manifest it self as words and poems but as visual or aural expressions (art or music).

3. No one wants to see reams and reams of poetry, it is best served in small doses - Volumes and large books of poetry are daunting, while an epic poem, as in one discrete entity, is fine if reams and reams of poetry is altogether there is a chance for one poem not to be read, or not to impart the impact it might have if only one had been experienced. Poetry is a dish best served in small doses.

4. You are a poet, really, that's all you do, really? - Poetry in its self is not a singular occupation. A job perhaps if you are lucky enough to get paid to do poetry on a full-time basis but not an occupation. Poetry taps into the pulse of humanity, it flows, it beats, it feels. Poetic skills are fed on life. From our life poetry is a bi-product.

5. Poetry is not like a book, you can't just read poetry, it needs to be memorized, or shouted from the rooftops or whispered to a beautiful woman as she falls asleep in your arms. Poetry impacts when it is performed – seen, heard, felt. It is for this reason that poetry, even when consumed for personal fulfillment should be read aloud, allow the words to set upon the ears and ooze into the heart. When performed it should not be counterpointed by a still, non-moving reciter nor should it be accompanied by grand theatrics. Through your body and soul, the poetry should flow outwards onto waiting ears of the audience.