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Maria Speaks on the Subject of Poetry

Anyone can write poetry. I can write poetry. My neighbor can write poetry. Heck, my dog can probably write poetry. But not everyone can be a poet. There is a difference.

I have seen some of the most ridiculous pieces of writing in existence that claim the title of a poem. It baffles me what can get away with being called a poem nowadays. There’s honestly nothing to it. Just write a couple random sentences, put them into verse form, and BOOM! Ya got poetry. It’s easy peasy as that, people.

Take this sentence, for example: I am forever tormented by the constant drip drip drip of the faucet in my mind. Sounds weird, eh? Try this.

I am forever tormented
by the constant
drip
drip
drip
of the faucet
in my mind.

Now, not only can I call that a crazy sentence. Ladies and gentlemen, this is now a POEM! Pathetic, isn’t it?

Reading modern poetry literally makes me ill. I was bored one day in the library, so I decided to check out the poetry section. I took a random poetry book off the shelf and began to read it. After a while, the horrible choppy wording began to make me feel sick to my stomach, so I gave up on it. A good chunk of it went something like this:

The orange demon
rises in the sky

Morning has come

I walk
the concrete still cool
beneath my flower petal feet

Or maybe even something like this…

The sun rose today
but it was not the same.
My dog howls at the sun.
Flowers
parched beneath
orange-hot rays
of death.

See? All you do is come up with something simple to talk about like a morning, disregard ALL grammar rules, and stuff in a few fluffy metaphors. That equals a poem. At least, a poem in today’s standards. It doesn’t even have to make sense.

My personal opinion is that the above “poems” I have taken the liberty of writing are not poems at all. These are what I believe should be labeled as prose. More like really terrible prose, but let’s not be picky.

I think that poetry can be defined as a belief system, and my personal belief when it comes to poetry is that it has to have a point. Or, at least, an obvious point. I also believe that there should be some kind of pattern or repetition involved, but I’m never going to get what I want. I suppose I’ll settle for an obvious theme or idea. I can’t stand it when people like Walt Whitman jump around from idea to idea in the same poem. Or especially the same verse or stanza or even line. It drives me nuts. Walt Whitman is not a poet. He is a very bad writer of prose, and he probably realized this early on in his life and decided that in order to ever become a “good” writer he would have to invent free verse. And this he did. Personally, Walt, I would have gone with farming if I were you.

I also hate it when a writer of “poetry” seemed to have forgotten all grammar rules they were taught since first grade, not to mention all punctuation rules. I believe that in order for a poem to be good, it must be organized well and use logical grammar. Okay, sure, some people like E. E. Cummings won’t capitalize stuff because it gives the poem a certain style. I can respect that. But really, enough is enough. Don’t over do the no- capitalization thing, because THAT’S NOT POETRY! It’s ignorance!

Here is my final thought that I shall leave you with: anyone can write a so-called “good” poem; it takes no talent whatsoever. But it takes a real poet and a real writer with real talent to be able to write a good story.