HOME Sunday, 07 December 2003

I never thought I'd find myself writing about poetry, because I don't write a lot of it, myself, but a few remarks at a recent poetry workshop prompted me to ask what exactly it is, and what attractions can it possibly have for the ordinary reader, who just wants an easy read. The Collins English Dictionary defines poetry as - literature in metrical form; verse, but many modern-day poets ignore this and simply chop prose up into pieces and place those pieces on separate lines. I've seen such methods used even by established poets. Others overuse imagery and metaphors to such an extent that the reader is no longer quite sure what they are talking about and eventually no longer cares, but puts the book down and goes off to find something more understandable. The presenter of the workshop that I mentioned, also made the comment that "poetry has never been properly defined". That presents major problems for anyone who is trying to write the thing. The difficulty of practicing something that has never been properly defined is that you have to make up your own rules as you go along. Indeed, some modern poets seem to do this with a total disregard for their potential readers. The feeling you get is that they don't care if you read their work at all. They are so far above you, that you don't matter, or come into consideration in their poetical scheme of things. Is it any wonder that poetry sells so badly when something that should be a delight becomes a drudge to read and finally something to avoid? Now, excuse me if I'm one of the plebs - "I yam what I yam" (as Popeye used to say) - there's no getting away from it. And being of the common sort, I like best to read common poets, and there are plenty of them around, if you do a little searching. Please understand, of course, that common poetry doesn't mean bad poetry, it simply means poetry you can tune in to, poetry which you can read and say, oh yes, oh yes, oh YES! Like all writing, the more assessable a poem is, the more valuable it becomes. Something that is indecipherable except to the person who wrote it, well, what use is it to humanity at large? ...a gem of purest ray serene that is hidden in a dark unfathomed cave is absolutely no good to anyone. Let me just tell you of an amazing excuse I have heard for not writing in rhyme: "Well, sometimes, the right word is hard to find ..." So. So, they admit that they are just not up to it, that they don't want to take the trouble? Have these people never heard of a dictionary, nor of a thesaurus? There are even rhyming dictionaries, if you're really stuck. But, of course, this is all common stuff, this is for the plebs. Johnny wrote in blank verse, He never wrote in rhyme. He said, "I don't want to rehearse, I haven't got the time." And so he wrote his rhymless song For hour on hour on hour, While life rhymed pleasantly along Beneath his ivory tower.