Discussion: Why write poetry?

[wordsheff]

I know I do it because in a few years ago in intro to modern lit here in madison, we studied eliot and yeats...
I couldn't believe what people could say in a poem. It was unbelievable. Hemingway did the same thing for me.
Ever since then, I've found poetry to be not only a good outlet but also redeeming in a way. We don't always act how we'd like to in a situation, but later, upon reflecting on it, we can reevaluate and create something out of it, something that adds to the world.
I know it sounds a little lame but that is why I write. It's a way of giving, redeeming yourself, expressing...it's just so many things...I suppose that is art in general...but what other artform requires so little of the artist?
You can be inspired anywhere and all you need is a pen and something to write on...no camera, no recording studio or instruments, no paint, etc.
I'm drunk and just curious as to what the rest of you have to say. I'm glad we all write...I hope someday our generation can bring poetry back to the mainstream (the school of absolute write? we can be the beats of the 2000s!)
-WS

[LimeyDawg]

WS,

One of the things that I've had trouble getting those around me to understand is my belief that being a better poet makes a person a better writer overall. It's not simply the ability to couch ideas in poetic verse, its the way poetry changes the way you look at everything around you. I like that I've begun to ask myself "how would I show somebody what I just saw here?" I'm also hearing the prose in songs I listened to with a lazy ear for many years. Strange how some of my favorite songs are actually quite good pieces of poetry.

Mark

[scottVee]

Poetry can be a mental exercise or a lifelong focus of study. Either way, any time spent thinking (producing) as opposed to staring (consuming) is a positive thing in the end.

There are so many flavors and styles of poetry, and so many so-called reasons for its being, that you end up choosing what it means to you. Some people write poetry to show the world how clever they are ... that drives me nuts. To me, it's about raw communication, pure channeling of brain stuff from one person to another, and no other medium can do it quite the way poetry can.

Whether a poem has great meaning or not, I'm not interested -- when images form, the mind is at work. Whether meaning can be dodged entirely, I doubt it.

Your own mileage may vary. ;-)

[Mayor of Moronia]

Poets make the best prose writers. Poems ar excellent practice for finding the very best words and developing a sense of cadence.

[JRH]

Hi Wordsheff,

This is a very good topic and you raised a VERY good point in saying that you couldn't believe how much could be expressed in a Poem, because that DEPTH and COMPLEXITY is what separates Verse from Poetry (no matter how well either might be written).

Both are essentially "Communication" of Meaning, (regardless of the source or form such might take), but the ONLY limits that can be placed on what can be communicated lie in the Poet's intent and his/her mastery of craftsmanship).

Those who are content to settle for a moment's insight, (particularly if it's based on personal rather than universal experience), are limiting themselves and the influence they might have. Those who strive for more have the potential to influence far more people on far deeper levels.

The choice is up to the writer but it's an important one based on the goals that the individual has set for themselves. Those who set limited goals will be content with less and there is nothing wrong with that as long as they recognize and accept those limitations. Those who set there goals higher will face greater challenges and have the potential (although NO guarantee) of much greater rewards.

Think on it, and Write On,

JRH

[Bret]

Because words are like little Lego blocks lying there begging to be stuck to each other and twisted around in fun shapes. A poem is a sand bag holding ground against the flood. An epitaph scrawled on the blank wall of time.

[ddgryphon]

I initially wrote poetry in High School as a release. I could convey things in a sort of code -- a duality of meaning -- that was more compact and effective than other writing I did. I also was so offended by what showed up in our school literary magazine that I had to respond with something better.

I wrote a good deal until I was around 25 (lyrics and poetry for they are quite different) and then, just after my daughter was born I believe something in my lack of sleep kept me out of touch with my muse.

Fast forward to 2006. I'm composing and need to own the words I use for "Art" songs and want to submit. Mr. Bright-guy thinks, Hell, I used to write poetry why not.

Floodgates opened and words came pouring out in an unbelievable stream. If they were water I could have become a hydromining operation.

I now write poetry because my mind is bent in that direction. I derive incredible satisfaction from forcing the most effective amount of words in the right order, in the right form, to create moments that show you more than what is happening (at least that's my goal).

I still script and write prose, but I never realized how much my heart belonged to poetry until this year.

Now I write it mostly because I have to -- my soul isn't giving me a choice in the matter and I turn to poetry immediately and only relent when I need a larger canvas.

I don't know how many people love poetry anymore (and I'm not talking Helen Steiner Rice -- not, as they say, that there's anything wrong with that). I don't know how many can look through that dark or bright glass and catch the turn of color or the play of light -- but it is one of the most breathtaking things I can experience. I love it especially when I feel I've managed to contribute to that canvas.

Or, as my cousin once observed, I do it becuase it isn't there and something in me wants to make it be.

[Assauer]

There are those that suggest that the first written piece known to man may have been The Epoch of Gilgamesh, a story, a history, and a poem also since it was in verse with all sorts of clever devices so that the orator could recall it. If we move to the time to when paper and pen becomes readily available to the common man, and on to book printing, then we see a far greater separation of forms of literature, the novel, poem, newspaper, history book, auto repair manual etc. Poetry evolves as well, until suddenly it no longer needs to rhyme and complicated trappings of verse are no longer needed to be taught. Anyone, educated or not, can now write a poem, even if the value of the the poem and poet can not be calculated by those who think themselves important enough to do so.

The modern Poet is to me historian and painter, etching a scene, a place, a memory forever into to my mind. It’s not a novel, it’s not the news, it’s not the official guide, history, or manual, and it’s not something I just can’t live without,... when it comes right down to it poetry is about as useful as a knick knack, or a coffee table book, or a bobble-head doll, poetry will not provide shelter or clothing or food, but still I read it, and still, when the light comes (lack of opinions here not withstanding) I try to write a poem. I suppose I could try to better define my audience and write more to their ear, but when I am out in the garden reading my poems out loud to Voltaire, he has yet to complain,...

[Eveningsdawn]

I suppose I write poetry because I get ideas that rebell against the short story or even flash fiction format. They want to be a poem, to have a certain flow, a certain rhythm I can only get in poetry. Also, it fascinates me the hundred different meanings that a hundred different people can get out of one single piece of poetry. Especially when I know what I was writing about at the time, and it wasn't that. It's such an incredible interaction, knowing how what you write affects people. Although all forms of writing do that to people, poetry does it the most. Which is why I love it. Also, it makes me a better writer, I think.

[William Haskins]

i write poetry
because, like prayer,
it's a symbolic battle
against despair.

[Stew21]

i write poetry because that is how my brain processes things in its purest form. i feel like i have to write it, mostly. like ktc, my brain would explode if i didn't purge these things.
it's fantastic exercise for the other writing i do as well. being able to write poetry makes writing prose better, at least for me.

[maestrowork]

It's mental masturbation for me.

(self-gratifying; no one else cares)

[trumancoyote]

It's how I confess things, I think.

[Billytwice]

I like playing with words.
Also, I like puzzles.
Some poems are difficult.
Some are deceptive in their apparent simplicity.
But this is more about reading than writing poetry.
I'm a fan of William McGonagall, author of The Tay Bridge Disaster.
As for writing poems?
I write poems for my own amusement.
But some day, I hope to dredge the depths of my creativity and become as notorious as McGonagall.

[LeftUnsaid]

but what other artform requires so little of the artist?
You can be inspired anywhere and all you need is a pen and something to write on...no camera, no recording studio or instruments, no paint, etc.


I find this interesting as one day I remember complaining to myself about how a painter or that kind of artist can get inspired by a clothespin and simply draw or paint a picture of it. I get inspired by a clothespin and need to write a whole epic poem about it.
I think poetry derives a lot out of a person, at least it does for. There is more of my soul in my poetry then there is in my novel. The difference is that the exhaustion doesn't last nearly as long.
But anyways, I write poetry because they tend to come on like a sneeze, and well, nothing good will come of suppresing a sneeze.

[estateconnection]

It's how I confess things, I think.

Yes! It forces me to use my words and really think rather than just saying "I hate this" or "I love that." When I write anything, I can visualize the whole scene and then just write about what I see. But when I'm writing poetry, the scenes I see are so much more graphic and intense. I like the things I see when I write poetry when the visual scares the hell out of me.

[Good Word]

For me, writing poetry often puts me more in touch with my own humanity. It gives me room to think about philosophical, metaphysical, or spiritual ideas.

I speculate, therefore I am.

[wordsheff]

wow! awesome replies and i'm glad to see them from so many of the regulars.

I think for those of us here it's probably just in our nature. I've written things I thought were good that nobody else did and it made me feel like I'd never write again...then, of course, the next day I write about feeling that way.

And it is like a sneeze (something you have to release...so mental masturbation isn't such a bad way to put it either), though it is a release with results you want to show people.
-WS

[Nyna]

I write poetry in the hope that one day I'll write something that will touch even one person. I write because I love words, and find them heartbreakingly beautiful. I write because it's fun. I write to remember. I write to purge the things I don't want to remember from my mind, so they can stop repeating themselves over and over behind my eyes. I write because I sat down when I seven and decided to write a poem, and I've never really stopped.

[LimeyDawg]

And it is like a sneeze (something you have to release...so mental masturbation isn't such a bad way to put it either), though it is a release with results you want to show people.
-WS...which, I'm assuming, marginalizes sneezes and masturbation as metaphors.:ROFL:

[drachin8]

I write poetry because I love the way the words can be strung together in so many ways, a strand of Christmas lights flashing on a tree or a necklace of skulls hung about the neck or any other wondrous thing. I love the feel of a certain rhythm dancing on the tongue and onto the screen, so many dances to perform. I love finding the perfect word or turn of phrase that completes an image. So much meaning can be packed into such a small space.

Yeah, that probably covers it. :)

-Michelle

[kdnxdr]

poetry is power

[Mayor of Moronia]

It's mental masturbation for me.

(self-gratifying; no one else cares)

C'mon. There are wonderful poems out there that are timeless and speak to everyone. Of course, 99.99 percent of poetry has the singulartly pleasing bouquet of our own farts.

[jjblue]

Wordsheff, another great topic for discussion. I wrote poetry when writing time was short. It made my prose cleaner and more thoughtful, lyrical. Now, I publish more poetry than prose. I grew up appreciating good writing--essays, novels, etc. Poetry was not really my interest. Hmmmm, good to grow up, just a bit!

[DeniseK]

I wrote my first poem in high school English class and the teacher loved it. That helped my perception of myself, which wasn't all that great, and the rest is history.

[crypticquill]

Because if I didn't, my head would probably explode.

[kdnxdr]

because I'm addicted

[poetinahat]

I wrote my first poem in high school English class and the teacher loved it. That helped my perception of myself, which wasn't all that great, and the rest is history.
That's excellent!

Why me?
1) I want to feel part of the world. Instead of just looking at it, I want to be in it, adding to it. (You all play the role of 'world'.)
2) I want to be a poet. If I act like one, maybe I can be one.
3) I want to be more of a giver, not just a taker.

I started again not long ago -- partly to keep up with the rest of you. Aesthetically, I do a lot of taking in this world, and I want to do some giving. Not just for you, but for me.

A friend once told me, in commenting on my music buying habit, that I'd never be satisfied with buying recordings, but I loved music too much: I needed to make some. That's been coming slowly. Poetry comes a little more quickly.

I've spent a good part of my life doing things I don't enjoy much, and as a consequence, I haven't done them well. I'm having fun writing, and I like what I'm doing. That must be good. (I can see where I'd like to improve, but I'm encouraged.)

Plus, it justifies my hanging out with all of you.

[JennaGlatzer]

I don't do it on purpose.

[Godfather]

Because that's who I am, right?

I guess I first wrote something a few years back, inspired by rap songs. It was useless, and I forgot about writing. But then I was inspired to start writing again about a year and a half ago, or two maybe.

In that time, I've matured, and I think writing these words has helped me mature. It helps me look at the world, and it helps me look at myself differently.

If it weren't for writing I'd probably still be overweight, I'd have no confidence, I'd be pathetic like I was before.

Everybody needs a drug, I think writing or drawing or whatever is mine.

[laurel29]

I wrote a lot of really bad poetry in my teens - I was coping with some difficult things and it helped me sort it out. I’ll always be grateful (both that it helped me and that no one will ever see it:) ) to poetry.

I can be a tool of self exploration or a way to convey a story. Nowadays I like poetry that paints a picture or tells a story, I like the way so few words can say so much. Not only can you tell a story with so few words but you can tell several. It amazes me, how many different pictures that people can get from the same poem. I love that. I don’t write poetry intentionally, (well, that’s not quite true, I try to, but the results are so bad . . . I really don’t have the right words to describe them - I wouldn’t call them poems, more like word mutilation:) ) but often I jot down a little scene floating around in my mind or a thought that passes me by at random. I can’t help it, if I don’t write it down it will just keep repeating itself and might slip into my stories or somewhere else it doesn’t belong.

Plus, it is fun! I like puzzles and words, poetry is like putting words together as a puzzle, what could be more fun than that?

[Mayor of Moronia]

wordsheff

Personal observation. Poetry was captured by indolent schizophrenics about 1969 and has been a captive ever since. It has degenerated into irrelevance. Once upon a time poetry provided us mutes with perfect words and made our hearts orators. But now its just a window upon an empty room.

[Godfather]

I prefer KTC's observation :D (that was mighty kinda ya. Thank you)


and I agree with the latter, it is quite a hateful observation.

[laurel29]

I find a window into an empty room a very evocative image. If the room is empty than that says something about the human condition right there...and that is meaningful.

[crypticquill]

You could think of the room as being empty because no matter how hard we try and no matter how successful we think we are, when we read another person's poetry, we will never fully and truly understand it - even if the author explains it - because we are not inside the mind of the author when s/he writes it. We aren't living the experience with him/her as it happens.

We may be led to a beautiful door - reading the poem - and we may admire the inviting "Welcome" mat - explained to us by the author - but the reality is, when we turn the knob and walk inside, the room is...empty.

If you look at it like that, it's not hateful. It's quite real - to me, anyway.

[Mayor of Moronia]

KTC

Hey! I love Bob Dylan. I know all his songs by heart. Listening to his songs 40 years later I dont have a freaking clue what he meant but he was influential and fun. And everyone on the planet has tried to write like him since then.

But the purpose of a poem is NOT to befuddle your sweetheart with word-salad.

Read e.e.cummings SOMEWHERE I HAVE NEVER TRAVELLED GLADLY BEYOND and let's talk again.

[davids]

I understand the Mayor and I surely appreciate what I consider KTC's terrific poetic abilities and his spiritual nature are-for me who has not a clue about the structure of poetry it is a simple tool to express my feelings on occasion- but more importantly I find that if I am sitting in front of my writing device with a blank stare in my brain-I can simply sit at the same device and compose some silly little ditty in my good old Irish way and that loosens up the stare-shoves it in the back corner of my black hole and I can continue working without resorting to things like white lines and scotch-and I am much better for it-both my spirit and my work.

[laurel29]

I didn't say a word about Dylan? I read all poets. What you said was hateful...or so I took it that way. You didn't - I wonder if he was looking at the picture in Godfather's signature? What that had to do with what you said, I have absolutely no idea, but that was where I assumed he got that from...either that or he just felt like bringing up Bob Dylan :)

[Godfather]

Sigh, it always comes back to my signature. Every time. :)


Somewhere, somebody said something about Don McClean and Bob Dylan, maybe it wasn't this thread. I thought that was what he was referring to.

[Mayor of Moronia]

laurel

It seems to me too many writers try to resurrect Chatauqua meetings in these threads. And that's okay until things degenerate to the level of the Revival scene in Huck Finn. Then everyone gets infected with the notion to save the souls of Indian Ocean pirates.

KTC

My contract says nothing about being obliged to parrot your sentiments. Perhaps Jenna simply forgot to mention this.

[poetinahat]

I thought the Mayor was using Dylan as a for-instance. (Not to speak of you in third person while you're here, Mayor. What say you?)

I didn't think it was a hateful observation; quite the contrary. Then again, I didn't think much at all of On the Road when I read it (Kevin, my promise to read other Kerouac still stands), and Jim bloody Morrison has a lot to answer for.

I hope this discussion continues; I'm enjoying it.

Speaking of which, where's aspier?

[Mayor of Moronia]

Poetinhat

You understand! Bless you my child.

[Mayor of Moronia]

e.e.cummings

somewhere i have never travelled,gladly beyond
any experience,your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skilfully,mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me,i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the color of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody,not even the rain, has such small hands

[laurel29]

I'm going to have to admit that I'm an ignoramus now...what? You lost me. I could pretend I'm smart and go look that up, but I'm afraid I don't have the time. (I'm supposed to be packed already :( ) What the heck is a Chatauqua? It has been so long since I read Huck Finn but I'm assuming your talking religious revival? Saving souls of murdering pirates is an excercise in futility? Is this what you are getting at? I'm still a bit confused as to what that had to do with why people write poetry? I'm not being sacrcastic or snippy, by the way, I really just don't understand where it came from.

[Mayor of Moronia]

KTC

Dont apologize. No need for it. I'm an unrepentent horsethief and pirate.

[Mayor of Moronia]

laurel

Years ago, here in Moronia By The Bay, a boutique owner placed a painting in the window of her store. I studied it for weeks and could make no sense of it. Then one day the scene materialized out of what had seemed to me an amorphous glob of paint. Then I was amazed I had failed to see what was so obvious.

[Paint]

My muse talks in poetry-speak, I write it.
I am a teacher of life, this is my medium, along with visual art. This is what I give back. Take it or leave it. I hope sometimes it is beautiful to you, it gives me joy.
When I write a poem that is sooo good to me it stays, repeating in my head for days.
I love it!
good thread!
did someone mention Aspier? I miss him!

[laurel29]

laurel

Years ago, here in Moronia By The Bay, a boutique owner placed a painting in the window of her store. I studied it for weeks and could make no sense of it. Then one day the scene materialized out of what had seemed to me an amorphous glob of paint. Then I was amazed I had failed to see what was so obvious. Oh well, I'm used to missing the obvious...I'm always thinking, it must be something more than that? Maybe that is my problem.

On topic- I thought of another reason I like to write poems (or sort of poems anyway). It helps me make word choices and build a better vocabulary. It also helps me see how to use fewer words to paint a picture and condense my description in a story.

[Mayor of Moronia]

laurel
Exactly. Speeches never seem to fit on the cards we exchange. But poems do. It's like a can of condensed fields of flowers.