Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Whitman knew better

In this day and age, we have too much to hide behind: the dollhouse, the picture tube, the air-conditioned cabins, the plastic, but too much will become not enough way before we’ve finished. The barren, carpeted, astro-turfed, laser-lighted sun-stricken earth is showing signs of wear and tear. Turning to live with animals will not be an option. Whitman knew even then, we were not so “placid and self-contain’d” as beasts...The nuclear blast may not be a bomb, but a slow, rotting in water, drowning, death.


side note:
This was originally written for 6 Sentences, but I submitted another one to them, so I thought I'd make this one my prose poem. They say it has to be sentences, but that doesn't mean it's not a poem...damn them...it's a prose poem! Form shmorm...If I wanna use form I will, and if I wanna change that form into my own thing, I will. If I wanna call it a poem, I will...be it a marred sonnet, or a smeared rondeau, or a bullet-holed haiku...
For all you poetry Nazis out there...aaarggh! (just had to let that one out...hehe!)

8 comments:

Julie said...

OH, YES! Love that last line. Love it all.

Scot said...

looks like a paragraph to me...(sorry, just kidding)

Nathan said...

Love the tone here and of course you're right.
Also, why are there poetry nazis?

Cynthia said...

You are so right Holly, there is so much opportunity to keep oursleves hidden; and the poor earth!

Yes, the poet Nazis, a distateful
group of self-appointed dinos.

I enjoy the journal where all the poems aren't cookie cutters of the loast poem.

holly said...

Thank you Julie, Scot, Nathan, and Cynthia, as always, so supportive and kind.

Nathan, as far as poetry Nazis, I just have my own opinions about form and structure, and how I can do with it what I will... (I think Cynthia said it well). I'm not sure I answered your question (not that I could), and I don't know if it was a serious question or not...sorry.

Scot, you made me laugh...thank you. :)

holly said...

Actually, I changed my mind. I want to address the poetry nazi issue further...
I think it is important for students of poetry (on some level) to understand the history of forms, and how important each one has been in the history of poets...
However, I also think that, like art, that once a poet does know that history, in this "modern poetry" society, that a poet can do what they like to "play" with form.

Also, like art, though, I do think that defining what poetry "is" and "isn't" is a tough one...and people who know nothing about the history of poetry, who write poems, have just as much right to call it a poem...for a comparison, folk art...Folk artists have had no formal training, but their art is still art...
Okay, I'm done with that subject for now.

Nathan said...

With my question I just meant why do they exist? It's more rhetorical I guess. I just think the idea of having some set of "poetry laws" in your head and then to go around trying to enforce them is so stupid.
You're right about learning about poetry though. The forms of poetry and its history should be known just as much as the the living manifestation of poetry now should be known.

holly said...

Nathan...thanks for clarifying...it got me to thinking that much more, eh? That's what I meant...what you said about "set poetry laws" and having to enforce them...Most of us are poets because we are trying to think outside boundaries...yes?

At the same time, if that is the case about "set poetry laws" how do we teach poetry to students? Well, I have been dealing with that, and I have my own methods, but that's another ball of string...you know?