What is Poetry?
Tue, 2006-04-04 08:36 — ano
This fascinating discussion between atra and asuph makes an old question resurface.
So I thought it would be interesting to get viewpoints on what poetry means to different people.
What makes poetry, poetry?
I’ve read poetry that looks suspiciously like prose. I’ve read prose that begs to be called poetry. Experimenting with different forms of poetry made me realize how much I didn’t really know. Some people write such exquisite poetry - it is hard to find a single flaw. Some poetry goes right over my head. Some poetry strikes a chord with its simplicity. Some poetry feels too pretentious. Some poetry feels naked.
What is your take?
Poetry as a tool
Be aware that poetry is also a very potent psychological tool, that may be wielded on others as well as oneself.
It is almost like a surgeon’s scalpel, in the right hands.
I have, in the past, accidentally found myself teaching applied creativity to unsuspecting kids, and in my preparation of the lectures, I have found that poetry is a potent tool - a tool that may be used for
- Getting to the right solution
- manifesting solutions to problems
- argumentation
- insight into a subject
The reason is that in poetry, one brings together even diverging neural pathways, by using figures of speech, and other poetic techniques.
I like to hijack these same poetic pathways, to track down new solutions, new ways of looking at a situation and also to break psychological conditioning.
Naturally, I have been accused in the past of using poetry in an absolutely technical and mathematical manner. However, I like to point out that poetry has aspects which are much more than just giving literary pleasure, and to appreciate those aspects is as necessary as any other aspect.
To understand poetry is not as much of understanding what the poet meant to say, as it is to understand one’s own conditionings, limitations and posibilities.
A poem is like calligraphy - meditate upon it, and it is literally possible to see the self revealed in all its splendours.
Words are not just words - they are algorithms that form your mind. And since a poem puts together words, what you have in a poem is a fantastic neural map of a particular state of mind of an individual, (and fascinatingly, the same map will also reflect the neural map of the reader).
What does this mean? Many things and a million uses.
It is almost like getting the concurrent source code for a dynamic self-updating program, in a way.
Here’s an exercise that I configured - its fun, see if you can find some time to do it -
Write a poem - any kind of a poem, without any format. Thats all. Anyone who reads it should not be able to find any format in it.
anything
anything that rhymes
even just a complaint
whatever makes my day
come shine, come rain
thanks maria
for bringing attention to that discussion maria!
asuph, atra discussion is indeed very interesting.
thanks bleu, thanks Ano
Thanks Bleu,
But, the credit really goes to Ano for the blog..and others who started the discussion.
Maria
For Ano
Ano,
Obviously, it is hard to ‘define’ poetry.. to me, it is an ‘artform’
-a process of self-discovery and expression.
Someone once told me that the difference is, poetry ‘compresses words’ (terseness) and keeps the juices ‘concentrated’..while prose…stretches it and dilutes language!
If you want ‘intense emotions’ to be evoked you turn to poetry and if you want ‘easy reading’ you go for prose (generally speaking!)
I suppose one can also look at writing/reading poetry as style (format) and substance(content)…
The more *Classic forms of poetry..are usually written in blank verse, free verse, rhyme styles..and (lyrical).
While *Contemporary poetry…really does not have any rules!
I enjoy poetry..all kinds! Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou…or any Blogger..it does not matter, can also listen to lyrical poetry (songs)..all day long! And the more ‘heart’ and more hard core substance, the more appealing to me!
Maria
ano, lady, nice topic
ano,
lady, nice topic you’ve picked up here. Poetry to me, is pretty new and until coupla years ago, i never really liked it. real poetry makes even the mutest sing adn thats a rarity these days. i havent read any shakespeare or william blake, but know little about Frost. but most of my favourites have been here in the blog world, starting off with Siggy-The Fraud whose poems did evoke a certain simplicity about the real world we live in. Asuph mia tho is on different plane altogether-sometimes real, hard hitting and yet at times strangely over-the-top confusing and emotional. Sometimes just read it, for a challenge, coz someof his works are. Next the Professor of DSS is nothing short of a Pulitzer poet in the making, his last poem’s mixed metaphorical usage of “stone thaw” shines through brilliantly. And of course you, ano lady, you’re one of my faves.
Now this discussion btwn the two well-read, well-known, well-buckwaased ghaatis is nothing short of a literature abyss into which i dare not even peek, for i’ve just begun to learn the ABC of poetry.
poetry
It is what moves me in that moment…
Moves me from sitting staganant
and places me where I have never stood before
A new angle
A new vision
It is the raising of my eyes to see afresh
It is beauty incarnate
It is a merger of neural pathways that walked apart
but which now suddenly together undulate.
It is when I understand without effort
It is everything seems to be right
It is seeing anew something that saw everyday
and it is also the seeing of things that I will never see
It is the answer that is also the question
It is something that sings to me in a way that only I could understand
It is honesty and yet sometimes a feigned charm
It is open mouthed wonder and also of laughter
It is the manifestation of beauty in a place that I never expected,
beauty in a way that I never could foresee
It is what moves me in that moment…
my take
all of that
but seriously, any thing, that for me , creates a picture in my mind, any thing that moves me, and any thing that makes me feel an emotion the poet might have ( or not ) tried to convey , is poetry. it can be written as poetry or it can be written as prose, but its poetry nonetheless