To All Those Free Verse Haters

this was a comment on a contest held by Frodofan for free verse writers to write poems to show her that free verse was TRUE poetry.





i am very happy and thankful to Frodofan for this contest, but here is what i have to say about the free verse haters:

i am a rhyme handicapped person, when i try to rhyme it ends up sounding horrible and very forced most of the time. so i like to write my thoughts and emotions done into free verse poetry. people who openly bash free verse i find very to be disrespectful. they are showing that they don't think anyone has the capacity to write something beautiful if it doesn't have proper meter and a rhyme scheme. its very cruel for someone to say that when a person shares their soulful creations. so people who just don't rhyme well, shouldn't write poetry? who are you to decide that free verse can’t have beat or be poetry at all?

its very immature as well because if they don't like the medium of free verse, that is nothing more then their personal preference. just because you don't like it very much, doesn't mean that its not art or that thousands of other people can't love it. there is no TRUE art, art is human expression and takes many different ugly and beautiful forms. its just that some like it and some don't.

you also should never close your mind so totally to any art, someday you might come across something you find to be truly beautiful in that medium. don't turn it away just because your mind is so closed.

its much like modern art and myself. i personally don't care for it much of it. i think that a lot of it a kindergartener could design, so it shouldn't be worth so much. (but you see, i think that kindergarteners' artwork is still art and can be beautiful) yet i do not openly bash or say things against modern art because thousands of people truly love it, it is still a form of human expression. who am i to tell the artist and his fans that his creation is not TRUE art. yet even though i am not a fan of the medium, i have found pieces that really do move me. there is beauty and talent in all mediums, its a matter of finding that piece that moves you as an individual.

i am not saying that art cannot be critiqued, comments and discussion can talk about what makes particular art worth more to people other then the artist. why do so many love picasso, but others don’t? (much as why there are many world renowned free verse poets, such as e.e. cummings) if someone wants to target a certain audience or use a certain defined medium, these are where critiques are productive. other then that readers feel free to comment on how the poem actually made you feel. if it didn’t move you at al, because the flow or spelling bothered you, you can say it but don’t tell them its not art or its not good enough just because you didn’t like it. not everyone is talented at touching others or creating unique and universally beautiful things.

so saying i am very happy that Frodofan is open to finding pieces of free verse that he can enjoy. we should all be open to experiencing more art, we should share it and encourage others to discover new things. free verse is a very open and unstructured art, thus it is harder to write a piece that is worth more to more people because you have to find a way for it to stand out of the crowd of other pieces.

i would like to let the people who have entered anti-free verse poetry know, that he is asking for a mature attempt at beautiful free verse. it is immature and disrespectful. he has honestly and politely let us know he doesn't care for free verse and would like to experience more of it to find something he may like.

sorry for the long comment, but i am tried of hearing how stupid or bad my form of expression is, how its not TRUE art and its too easy. i plan on entering the contest, but like many artists and most people i have to be in the right mood. i am not in a poetry mood now, and i might not feel like anything i write for a while is worth submitting. we'll see, but thanks again to Frodofan for giving free verse a mature chance.


*loves*