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My Take on Poetry - from Blog Post 3/11/2014
Poetry is an undervalued art form. Poetry is also not really understood fully until you immerse yourself in it. A poem can be like a little language grenade - condensing language into, well, whatever you want it to communicate. Poetry also, in my opinion, is art so you don't need to adhere to boundaries if you don't want to (That doesn't mean everyone will accept it as technical poetry vs. prose, etc.). Now I know that some academic can tell you all about pentameter and such. Their understanding of poetry helps them make really good poetry and they are sort of expert craftspeople of the art. You really don't need all of that though. It just takes practice and putting your poetry out on boards, etc. where people can critique.
Most of the time, I do minor tweaks if someone has a good point but I usually will just write another poem if I think a major overhaul is needed. As good or bad as you think my poetry may be, it used to be a lot worse, believe me. It took time to sort of find my own style. My favorites are poems that tell a story.
Poetry can rhyme, or not. I started by using poetry as sort of a psychological tool as a young man. A way to think through a situation or remember a moment that really hit me, sort of a journal. Now I mostly take a little thing I see in life that captures my attention and add it into a story. One day I was looking through my closet for some pictures of an old friend (note that the pictures were from a time before all digital photos) and became frustrated. I took that and turned it into a poem about a person who threw away pictures of someone they had a falling out with when young. The pictures are never found but the search triggers a powerful memory. The person is found again, even if the pictures are not.
I usually try to keep poetry vague in the sense that I don't use him or her all that often. I want whomever is reading it to imagine themselves in the story whatever their gender. Poetry is read through another persons perspective. Read a public board about a poem's analysis and you will find many different viewpoints. People read and internalize things through their own lens. When I say "beach house" some people envision a big glass house on a Hawaiian beach, some a wood shanty in South Carolina, some a house on the shore in England, or other views. If you make your poem too specific it sometimes takes away from the imagination - and that is why poetry isn't a detailed novel.
I'm no academic but I have written and thought about Poetry enough to have my own method and opinion. If you find a decent poet, you have found someone that writes it because they need it (to help them through life), or just love it and maybe a bit of both. There is no material reward except to the very gifted and unique poets who manage to be published and actually sell books in a quantity to make a profit. I also think good poets are perceptive people. The people that notice a little emotion that others miss. A person who can sit still for a few seconds and notice a small thing like the way sunlight sprinkles through the leaves while everyone else rushes by, busy doing things they think are very important.
Most people wont get poetry at all, and many who do wont like your poetry for whatever reason. If you are male and stuck around people with the Hollywood notion of what a "real man" is, they really might think you are odd. Well, trying to be something you are not comes off as fake anyway and usually makes for boring people.
I grew up in a place and time where people feared being different than the social norm at that time. I will never forget my English teacher in HS showing us a picture of a big bearded guy with a flannel jacket who was a poet just so the boys could feel half way comfortable reading and studying it. Everyone had this notion of poetry being only about love and flowers. The truth is that poetry is any and everything you make it.
You just keep writing it and hoping at least someone might enjoy it also.
Poetry is an undervalued art form. Poetry is also not really understood fully until you immerse yourself in it. A poem can be like a little language grenade - condensing language into, well, whatever you want it to communicate. Poetry also, in my opinion, is art so you don't need to adhere to boundaries if you don't want to (That doesn't mean everyone will accept it as technical poetry vs. prose, etc.). Now I know that some academic can tell you all about pentameter and such. Their understanding of poetry helps them make really good poetry and they are sort of expert craftspeople of the art. You really don't need all of that though. It just takes practice and putting your poetry out on boards, etc. where people can critique.
Most of the time, I do minor tweaks if someone has a good point but I usually will just write another poem if I think a major overhaul is needed. As good or bad as you think my poetry may be, it used to be a lot worse, believe me. It took time to sort of find my own style. My favorites are poems that tell a story.
Poetry can rhyme, or not. I started by using poetry as sort of a psychological tool as a young man. A way to think through a situation or remember a moment that really hit me, sort of a journal. Now I mostly take a little thing I see in life that captures my attention and add it into a story. One day I was looking through my closet for some pictures of an old friend (note that the pictures were from a time before all digital photos) and became frustrated. I took that and turned it into a poem about a person who threw away pictures of someone they had a falling out with when young. The pictures are never found but the search triggers a powerful memory. The person is found again, even if the pictures are not.
I usually try to keep poetry vague in the sense that I don't use him or her all that often. I want whomever is reading it to imagine themselves in the story whatever their gender. Poetry is read through another persons perspective. Read a public board about a poem's analysis and you will find many different viewpoints. People read and internalize things through their own lens. When I say "beach house" some people envision a big glass house on a Hawaiian beach, some a wood shanty in South Carolina, some a house on the shore in England, or other views. If you make your poem too specific it sometimes takes away from the imagination - and that is why poetry isn't a detailed novel.
I'm no academic but I have written and thought about Poetry enough to have my own method and opinion. If you find a decent poet, you have found someone that writes it because they need it (to help them through life), or just love it and maybe a bit of both. There is no material reward except to the very gifted and unique poets who manage to be published and actually sell books in a quantity to make a profit. I also think good poets are perceptive people. The people that notice a little emotion that others miss. A person who can sit still for a few seconds and notice a small thing like the way sunlight sprinkles through the leaves while everyone else rushes by, busy doing things they think are very important.
Most people wont get poetry at all, and many who do wont like your poetry for whatever reason. If you are male and stuck around people with the Hollywood notion of what a "real man" is, they really might think you are odd. Well, trying to be something you are not comes off as fake anyway and usually makes for boring people.
I grew up in a place and time where people feared being different than the social norm at that time. I will never forget my English teacher in HS showing us a picture of a big bearded guy with a flannel jacket who was a poet just so the boys could feel half way comfortable reading and studying it. Everyone had this notion of poetry being only about love and flowers. The truth is that poetry is any and everything you make it.
You just keep writing it and hoping at least someone might enjoy it also.