I'm beginning to think there's a terrible
gap in my education: I see contests on
AP for poetry forms - sonnets, triolets,
alliteration...and I thought these things,
these forms of writing were dead.
Purple prose and pedestrian rhyme?
So I've been told I have a knack for that.
Whatever it means...for a history major,
I do better at reasearching and reading
than poetry - Shakespeare I'm not.
I can understand the problem I had with
mathematics: when I was in school, the
calculator was hailed as the new tool of
math, so we learned all our math that way.
Now they're back to the ol' pen and paper.
No wonder I had to take Pre-Calculus twice,
and barely passed my chemistry classes in
college...and they never really taught us
anything but intepretation in English classes -
we were to write only interpretation papers .
It had little to do with form and grammar
and spelling (though those were expected,
I had to learn them on my own) but about
interpretation of the books we read; even
English 101 was more of a creative writing class.
At least I managed through history, but like
they say, what can you do with a history degree?
There actually are lots of possibilities, but you
have to live on the east coast of the USA.
So here I am, using this site for therapy.
I write prose, some rhyme, a little abstract,
and a lot of stories in what I thought was
free verse style about my past history, just
for emotional therapy and to connect with
people who share similar interests with me.
To tell you the truth, I'm just writing this
to open up as I sit at my computer, sick
with the flu...other contests I've tried to
enter already had entries along my line of
thought or the winners picked already.
So here I am pondering about this...this
thing, this style of writing called poetry.
In a list
A contest entry
- WHAT I AM LOOKING FOR by Swan song.
1300 points, ended January 16, 29 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest - And I still haven't found what I'm looking for... by chasing rainbows.
875 points, ended January 10, 12 entries
Honorable mention
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
I need a book on poetry forms.
Comments
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I can see you reading this at a pub and a smile on your face as the crowd i think would laugh with you.
I do believe this is a poem that is made to be read to an audiance. Many poems these days are not.
So it would be important how this poem is read.
I bet you do it with a smile on your face!
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Hey I totally relate to exactly what you are saying. I mean I hear all those forms mentioned too and most of the time I have never ever heard of them. And I think... shhh am I stupid or what. Then I realize that no I am not. I just never learned much about how to write things. Poems were mentioned in my English classes and then skipped over and we went onto other things. Oh we read shakespear, blake, Poe, and a few others but still not a good foundation on them at all.
So yeah I can relate to this totally.
Great write. And I hope you are feeling better by now. Seems that flu is getting around.
Thanks for sharing this and thanks for placing it in the Friends reading list. -
haha. what random thoughts you have
i absolutely love this because of its simplicity. it was an impromptu, just-off-the-top-of-your-head kinda thing
thanks for entering and all the best
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What an interesting take on the contest. Especially considering it's a prewrite, it fits alarmingly well. And it's different from the other pieces entered thus far.
I like it; the style is not exuberantly gaudy or ego-prided (not that other entries, per se, were) but the blatant honesty is refreshing. The real life tossed into the mix is stunning.
Tremendous.
Thank you for entering!
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I like this (:
thanks.
-dh -
what your doing is great. Poetry is mostly emmotional feeling and thoughts.
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I like this one! I definitely share your sentiments too; poetry can seem like a complete mystery to me sometimes. Actually, you know what 2 things have been helping me along recently? The first is reading song lyrics. I absolutely love Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan always has great writing, even Bruce Springsteen, and of course I'm a huge U2 fan. The second thing came out of doing this. I had Cohen's "The Traitor" stuck in my head and I ended up using the rythm and melody to write my own poem. I don't know why, but fashioning my words to music helped me focus so much better. You might try it if you feel yourself becoming mystified.
Oh, and Happy New Year! I'm praying that you have a very blessed year ahead of you. You deserve it.
Love always, K -
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I like Cohen's "Hallelujah" myself. I usually use music, daily life, and abstracts for inspiration, but it's like they say: To each their own interpretation.
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